NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg this Wednesday denounced the increase in espionage and intelligence activities by China in European countries, without however confirming the discovery of Chinese “spy balloons” over Europe.
On Saturday, the United States shot down a Chinese “spy balloon” that had been flying for days over various parts of the country, such as the state of Montana, in the northeast, where one of the three fields of nuclear missile silos in North America is located American.
China has admitted the balloon is part of it, but said it was blown off course by high winds and was being used for meteorological purposes, not espionage.
During a visit to the United States, Stoltenberg did not confirm the discovery of Chinese spy balloons over Europe.
“We are seeing an increase in Chinese intelligence activity in Europe through various mechanisms.S. They use satellites, computer attacks and, as we have seen in the United States, balloons,” the Secretary General of the Atlantic Alliance stressed during a press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
The NATO official stressed that Beijing has “significantly increased investment in its military capabilities” and warned that the countries of the Atlantic Alliance should “remain vigilant in the face of the constant risk posed by Chinese intelligence”.
The response to these activities should be “cautious and responsible,” Stoltenberg said, as he considered Washington’s decision to shoot down the Chinese balloon.
Stoltenberg warned that security is no longer a regional issue, but a global one, as “what happens in Asia affects Europe and what happens in Europe affects Asia and also North America.”
The head of US diplomacy, on the other hand, pushed for the United States’ version that countries on the five continents recorded the presence of spy balloons from China.
“We are not alone in this,” Blinken insisted, classifying the balloon’s presence as a violation “of sovereignty, territorial integrity and international law.”
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said today that China has launched a “fleet of balloons destined for espionage operations” around the world “in recent years.”
According to another White House spokesman, John Kirby, China has been working for years on this “program” of balloons for espionage operations that have already flown over regions around the world.
“This is a program that the Chinese have been working on for several years. They have tried to improve it, expand it and put it into practice, all with the aim of obtaining confidential information,” said the center’s spokesman. .
Kirby added that Washington is talking to its allies around the world to provide them with information about the scope of this Chinese espionage program and, without giving further details, indicated that new data on the matter will be revealed today.
The United States also announced on Friday that it had discovered another “spy balloon” over Latin America, which the Chinese government also admitted, though they insisted the airship did not pose “any threat”.
The countries in which the device was detected were Costa Rica, Colombia and Venezuela, according to various sources.
The discovery of these “spy balloons” sparked a diplomatic crisis between Washington and Beijing and led to the suspension of an already planned trip by the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, to the Asian country.
Source: DN
