China says that the hot air balloon is a “balloon” for scientific purposes. (Document)
New York:
President Joe Biden said on Saturday that the United States would “take care” of a hot air balloon suspected of Chinese spying that was tracked as it flew over the United States.
Biden made his remarks in response to a question about whether the United States had shot down a high-altitude surveillance balloon that was flying over the country in what Washington called a “clear violation” of US sovereignty.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed a visit to China scheduled to begin on Friday because of hot air balloons.
The president did not elaborate on what was planned. Officials said military leaders considered shooting down the high-altitude surveillance balloon this week but ultimately recommended against doing so because of the risk of falling debris.
China expressed regret that a “balloon” used for civilian meteorological and other scientific purposes strayed into US airspace.
The Pentagon said on Friday that another Chinese hot air balloon was observed over Latin America, but did not say exactly where.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
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