The U.S. government reiterated Monday that it is «open» to dialogue with Chinese authorities over the crisis in bilateral relations following incidents involving alleged spy balloons.
«We are open and we are committed to keeping the lines of communication open,» said U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price, after admitting that for the moment there is no meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries.
In this sense, Price has pointed out that there are several options, which the department is analyzing, to study those that are «constructive and useful», either by telephone, through the ambassadors or by means of trips between the respective countries.
«We believe it is important (to keep lines of communication open. It’s especially important in times of tension. We’re going to do everything we can as a responsible country to make sure that we have the ability to communicate with each other, to talk directly and frankly with each other,» he has reiterated.
The head of the White House National Security Council, John Kirby, has linked the recent downing of the latest unidentified objects over the United States to the existence of a Chinese military balloon program, saying he cannot «give many details in public» about these latest incidents and assuring that a recent improvement in U.S. radar systems would be the reason for the increase in the number of detections of these balloons.
Thus, Kirby has highlighted that during the presidency of Donald Trump it was not possible to detect this type of objects, while now, with President Joe Biden, it has been achieved.
Kirby also wanted to differentiate the Chinese spy balloon shot down in the Atlantic a week ago from the three objects shot down last weekend. The first one, unlike the other three, had maneuverability and was being remotely controlled. It was also flying at a much higher altitude of over 18,000 meters.
For his part, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said hours earlier that the case of the Chinese balloons detected over U.S. and Canadian airspace is evidence of a trend in Beijing’s «espionage and surveillance» activities against allies.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
