NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday that the case of Chinese balloons detected over U.S. and Canadian airspace is evidence of a trend in Beijing’s «espionage and surveillance» activities against allies.
In a press conference from Brussels before the meeting of defense ministers, Stoltenberg said that this case is «part of a pattern» whereby China and Russia «increase their intelligence and surveillance activities against NATO allies».
Thus, NATO’s political chief has assured that Beijing carries out these operations using different platforms. «We see it in cyberspace, with more and more satellites and we see it with balloons,» he explained.
In his opinion, this case highlights the importance of NATO allies strengthening their surveillance tasks and sharing more intelligence information, cooperating more to protect their airspace.
After Washington has shot down several objects in recent days flying over its airspace and that of Canada, the Chinese government has for the first time accused the U.S. authorities of violating Chinese airspace with balloons, specifically more than ten since the beginning of 2022.
The United States has accused the Asian giant of flying spy balloons and, although the Chinese side has acknowledged its link with a first downed device, it has limited itself to claiming that it was for scientific purposes.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
