Joe Biden Says He’ll Speak To China’s Xi About Balloon Incident

President Joe Biden said on Thursday he expects to speak with China’s President Xi Jinping about what the United States says was a Chinese spy balloon that a US fighter jet shot down early this month after it transited the United States.

“We are not looking for a new cold war,” Biden said.

Biden, in his most extensive remarks about the Chinese balloon and three unidentified objects downed by US fighters, did not say when he would speak with Xi, but said the United States was continuing to engage diplomatically with China on the issue.

ALSO READ: Bruce Willis Diagnosed With Dementia, Family Reveals

“I expect to be speaking with President Xi, I hope we are going to get to the bottom of this, but I make no apologies for taking down that balloon,” Biden said in response to complaints from Beijing.

After the speech, he told NBC News: “I think the last thing that Xi wants is to fundamentally rip the relationship with the United States and with me.”

China says the 200-foot (60-meter) balloon was for monitoring weather conditions, but Washington says it clearly was a surveillance balloon with a massive undercarriage containing electronics.

Biden, who had made few public comments about the spate of aerial objects that began with the spotting of the Chinese balloon, broke his silence after lawmakers demanded more information on the incidents, which have baffled many Americans