US
US jets down 4 objects in 8 days, unprecedented in peacetime
A U.S. fighter jet shot down an “unidentified object” over Lake Huron on Sunday on orders from President Joe Biden. It was the fourth such downing in eight days and the latest military strike in an extraordinary chain of events over U.S. airspace that Pentagon officials believe has no peacetime precedent.
Part of the reason for the repeated shootdowns is a “heightened alert” following a spy balloon from China that emerged over U.S. airspace in late January, Gen. Glen VanHerck, head of NORAD and U.S. Northern Command, said in a briefing with reporters.
Since then, fighter jets last week also shot down objects over Canada and Alaska. Pentagon officials said they posed no security threats, but so little was known about them that Pentagon officials were ruling nothing out — not even UFOs.
“We have been more closely scrutinizing our airspace at these altitudes, including enhancing our radar, which may at least partly explain the increase,” said Melissa Dalton, assistant defense secretary for homeland defense.
U.S. authorities have made clear that they constantly monitor for unknown radar blips, and it is not unusual to shut down airspace as a precaution to evaluate them. But the unusually assertive response was raising questions about whether such use of force was warranted, particularly as administration officials said the objects were not of great national security concern and the downings were just out of caution.
ALso read: Trudeau: US fighter shot down object over northern Canada
VanHerck said the U.S. adjusted its radar so it could track slower objects. “With some adjustments, we’ve been able to get a better categorization of radar tracks now," he said, "and that’s why I think you’re seeing these, plus there’s a heightened alert to look for this information."
He added: “I believe this is the first time within United States or American airspace that NORAD or United States Northern Command has taken kinetic action against an airborne object."
Asked if officials have ruled out extraterrestrials, VanHerck said, “I haven’t ruled out anything at this point.”
The Pentagon officials said they were still trying to determine what exactly the objects were and said they had considered using the jets' guns instead of missiles, but it proved to be too difficult. They drew a strong distinction between the three shot down over this weekend and the balloon from China.
The extraordinary air defense activity began in late January, when a white orb the officials said was from China appeared over the U.S. and hovered above the nation for days before fighter jets downed it off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. That event played out over livestream. Many Americans have been captivated by the drama playing out in the skies as fighter jets scramble to shoot down objects.
The latest brought down was first detected on Saturday evening over Montana, but it was initially thought to be an anomaly. Radar picked it up again Sunday hovering over the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and it was going over Lake Huron, Pentagon officials said Sunday.
U.S. and Canadian authorities had restricted some airspace over the lake earlier Sunday as planes were scrambled to intercept and try to identify the object. According to a senior administration official, the object was octagonal, with strings hanging off, but had no discernable payload. It was flying low at about 20,000 feet, said the official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials were still trying to precisely identify two other objects shot down by F-22 fighter jets, and were working to determine whether China was responsible as concerns escalated about what Washington said was Beijing's large-scale aerial surveillance program.
An object shot down Saturday over Canada's Yukon was described by U.S. officials as a balloon significantly smaller than the balloon — the size of three school buses — hit by a missile Feb. 4. A flying object brought down over the remote northern coast of Alaska on Friday was more cylindrical and described as a type of airship.
Both were believed to have a payload, either attached or suspended from them, according to the officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation. Officials were not able to say who launched the objects and were seeking to figure out their origin.
The three objects were much smaller in size, different in appearance and flew at lower altitudes than the suspected spy balloon that fell into the Atlantic Ocean after the U.S. missile strike.
The officials said the other three objects were not consistent with the fleet of Chinese aerial surveillance balloons that targeted more than 40 countries, stretching back at least into the Trump administration.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told ABC’s “This Week” that U.S. officials were working quickly to recover debris. Using shorthand to describe the objects as balloons, he said U.S military and intelligence officials were “focused like a laser” on gathering and accumulating the information, then compiling a comprehensive analysis.
“The bottom line is until a few months ago we didn’t know about these balloons,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said of the spy program that the administration has linked to the People’s Liberation Army, China’s military. “It is wild that we didn’t know.”
Eight days ago, F-22 jets downed the large white balloon that had wafted over the U.S. for days at an altitude of about 60,000 feet. U.S. officials immediately blamed China, saying the balloon was equipped to detect and collect intelligence signals and could maneuver itself. White House officials said improved surveillance capabilities helped detect it.
China's Foreign Ministry said the unmanned balloon was a civilian meteorological airship that had blown off course. Beijing said the U.S. had “overreacted” by shooting it down.
Then, on Friday, North American Aerospace Defense Command, the combined U.S.-Canada organization that provides shared defense of airspace over the two nations, detected and shot down an object near sparsely populated Deadhorse, Alaska.
Later that evening, NORAD detected a second object, flying at a high altitude over Alaska, U.S. officials said. It crossed into Canadian airspace on Saturday and was over the Yukon, a remote territory, when it was ordered shot down by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
In both of those incidents, the objects were flying at roughly 40,000 feet. The object on Sunday was flying at 20,000 feet.
The cases have increased diplomatic tensions between the United States and China, raised questions about the extent of Beijing’s American surveillance, and prompted days of criticism from Republican lawmakers about the administration’s response.
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Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani, Michael Balsamo, Ellen Knickmeyer and Tara Copp contributed to this report.
US blacklists 6 Chinese entities over balloon program
The United States on Friday blacklisted six Chinese entities it said were linked to Beijing's aerospace programs as part of its retaliation over an alleged Chinese spy balloon that traversed U.S. airspace.
The economic restrictions followed the Biden administration's pledge to consider broader efforts to address Chinese surveillance activities and will make it more difficult for the five companies and one research institute to obtain American technology exports.
The move is likely to further escalate the diplomatic row between the U.S. and China sparked by the balloon, which was shot down last weekend off the Carolina coast. The U.S. said the balloon was equipped to detect and collect intelligence signals, but Beijing insists it was a weather craft that had blown off course.
The incident prompted Secretary of State Antony Blinken to abruptly cancel a high-stakes trip to Beijing aimed at easing tensions.
The U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security said the six entities were being targeted for “their support to China's military modernization efforts, specifically the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) aerospace programs including airships and balloons.”
“The PLA is utilizing High Altitude Balloons (HAB) for intelligence and reconnaissance activities,” it said.
Read more: US says China balloon could collect intelligence signals
Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves said on Twitter his department “will not hesitate to continue to use" such restrictions and other regulatory and enforcement tools "to protect U.S. national security and sovereignty.”
The six entities are Beijing Nanjiang Aerospace Technology Co., China Electronics Technology Group Corporation 48th Research Institute, Dongguan Lingkong Remote Sensing Technology Co., Eagles Men Aviation Science and Technology Group Co., Guangzhou Tian-Hai-Xiang Aviation Technology Co., and Shanxi Eagles Men Aviation Science and Technology Group Co.
On Friday, a U.S. military fighter jet shot down an unknown object flying off the remote northern coast of Alaska on orders from President Joe Biden. The object was downed because it reportedly posed a threat to the safety of civilian flights, instead of any knowledge that it was engaged in surveillance.
But the twin incidents in such close succession reflect heightened concerns over China’s surveillance program and public pressure on Biden to take a tough stand against it.
'It just rang': In crises, US-China hotline goes unanswered
Within hours of an Air Force F-22 downing a giant Chinese balloon that had crossed the United States, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reached out to his Chinese counterpart via a special crisis line, aiming for a quick general-to-general talk that could explain things and ease tensions.
But Austin's effort Saturday fell flat, when Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe declined to get on the line, the Pentagon says.
China’s Defense Ministry says it refused the call from Austin after the balloon was shot down because the U.S. had “not created the proper atmosphere” for dialogue and exchange. The U.S. action had “seriously violated international norms and set a pernicious precedent,” a ministry spokesperson was quoted as saying in a statement issued late Thursday.
It's been an experience that's frustrated U.S. commanders for decades, when it comes to getting their Chinese counterparts on a phone or video line as some flaring crisis is sending tensions between the two nations climbing.
From Americans' perspective, the lack of the kind of reliable crisis communications that helped get the U.S. and Soviet Union through the Cold War without an armed nuclear exchange is raising the dangers of the U.S.-China relationship now, at a time when China's military strength is growing and tensions with the U.S. are on the rise.
Without that ability for generals in opposing capitals to clear things up in a hurry, Americans worry that misunderstandings, false reports or accidental collisions could cause a minor confrontation to spiral into greater hostilities.
And it's not about any technical shortfall with the communication equipment, said Bonnie Glaser, managing director of Indo-Pacific studies at the German Marshall Fund think tank. The issue is a fundamental disparity in the way China and the U.S. view the value and purpose of military-to-military hotlines.
U.S. military leaders’ faith in Washington-to-Beijing hotlines as a way to defuse flare-ups with China’s military has been butting up against a sharply different take — a Chinese political system that runs on slow deliberative consultation by political leaders and makes no room for individually directed, real-time talk between rival generals. And Chinese leaders are suspicious of the whole U.S. notion of a hotline. They see it as an American channel for talking their way out of blowback for a U.S. provocation.
“That's really dangerous,” Assistant Secretary for Defense Ely Ratner said Thursday of the difficulty of military-to-military crisis communications with China, when Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley pressed him about China's latest rebuff on Beijing's and Washington's hotline setup.
U.S. generals are persisting in their efforts to open more lines of communication with Chinese counterparts, the defense official said, testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “And unfortunately, to date, the PLA is not answering that call,” Ratner said, referring to China's People's Liberation Army.
Ratner accused China of using vital channels of communication simply as a blunter messaging tool, shutting them down or opening them up again to underscore China's displeasure or pleasure. In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning referred questions about Wei’s refusal to take Austin’s call to the Defense Ministry,
China's resistance to military hotlines as tensions increase puts more urgency on efforts by President Joe Biden and his top civilian diplomats and security aides to build up their own communication channels with President Xi Jinping and other top Chinese political officials, for situations where military hotlines may go unanswered, U.S. officials and China experts say.
Both U.S. and Chinese militaries are building up for a possible confrontation over U.S.-backed self-ruled Taiwan, which China claims as its territory. The next flare-up seems only a matter of time. It could happen with an expected event, such as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's promised visit to Taiwan, or something unexpected, like the 2001 collision between a Chinese fighter and a U.S. Navy EP-3 reconnaissance plane over the South China Sea. Without commanders talking in real-time, Americans and Chinese would have one less way of averting greater conflict..
“My worry is that the EP-3 type incident will happen again,” said Lyle Morris, a country director for China for the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 2019 to 2021, now a senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute. “And we will be in much different political environments of hostility and mistrust, where that could go wrong in a hurry."
Biden has emphasized building lines of communications with China to “responsibly manage” their differences. A November meeting between Xi and Biden yielded an announcement the two governments would resume a range of dialogues that China had shut down after an August Taiwan visit by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Last weekend, the U.S. canceled what would have been a relationship-building visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken after the transit of the Chinese balloon, which the U.S. says was for espionage. China claims it was a civilian balloon used for meteorological research.
The same week that Chinas balloon flew over the U.S., Austin was in the Philippines to announce an expanded U.S. military footprint there, neighboring China, noted Tiehlin Yen, director of the Taiwan Center for Security Studies, a think tank. “America is also very nationalistic these days,” Yen said.
“From a regional security perspective, this dialogue is necessary,” Yen said.
What passes for military and civilian hotlines between China and the U.S. aren't the classic red phones on a desk.
Under a 2008 agreement, the China-U.S. military hotline amounts to a multistep process by which one capital relays a request to the other for a joint call or videoconference between top officials on encrypted lines. The pact gives the other side 48 hours and up to respond, although nothing in the pact stops top officials from talking immediately.
Sometimes when the U.S. calls, current and former U.S. officials say, Chinese officials don’t even pick up.
“No one answered. It just rang,” recounted Kristen Gunness, a senior policy analyst at the Rand Corporation. Gunness was speaking about a March 2009 incident when she was working as an adviser to the Pentagon’s chief of naval operations. Chinese navy vessels at the time surrounded a U.S. surveillance ship in the South China Sea and demanded the American leave. U.S. and Chinese military officials eventually talked - but some 24 hours later.
It took decades of Washington pushing to get Beijing to agree to the current system of military crisis communications, said David Sedney, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense who negotiated it.
“And then once we had it in place, it was clear that they were very reluctant to use it in any substantive purpose,” Sedney said.
Americans' test calls on the hotline would get picked up, he said. And when Americans called to give congratulations on some Chinese holiday, Chinese officials would pick up and say thanks, he said.
Anything more sensitive, Sedney said, the staffers answering the phone “would say, ‘We’ll check. As soon as our leadership is ready to talk, we’ll get back to you.' Nothing would happen."
US trying to ease pressure on Bangladesh from Rohingya crisis: Counselor Chollet
The issues related to the Rohingya crisis and overall security in the Indo-Pacific region are likely to get priority during Counselor of the US Department of State Derek Chollet's Bangladesh visit next week.
"We are deeply concerned about the situation in Myanmar which is only getting worse," said Chollet ahead of the planned visit which may last for around 24 hours.
Talking at the television talk show "Tritiyo Matra" online, the US counselor said they are doing whatever they can in cooperation with Bangladesh and to try to ease the pressure on the country from the refugee crisis by providing critical assistance to it to support its humanitarian needs, also with efforts to try to bring some of the refugees back to the US.
Highlighting the importance of cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, he said Bangladesh is an important partner and that is why they have seen such a steady stream of high-level visitors.
The Indo-Pacific Strategy of the US outlines President Biden's vision to more firmly anchor the country in the Indo-Pacific and strengthen the region in the process. Its central focus is a sustained and creative collaboration with allies, partners, and institutions, within the region and beyond it.
About democracy, the US counselor said they acknowledge that no democracy is perfect but they always try to make themselves better and try to acknowledge their mistakes and improve.
He said when they talk about freedom of press, free and fair elections or free civil society, they do so freely in the "spirit of partnership and friendship."
The forthcoming visit of US Counselor Chollet will help strengthen Bangladesh-US relations, said a spokesperson Thursday.
"Counselor Derek Chollet will be visiting Bangladesh. The purpose of his visit is to strengthen the bilateral relations between Bangladesh and the United States," Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Seheli Sabrin told reporters in the afternoon.
The US Counselor serves at the rank of under secretary as a senior policy advisor to the US secretary of state on a wide range of issues and conducts special diplomatic assignments as directed by the secretary.
Sabrin said Chollet will also discuss the Rohingya issue and see the situation on the ground. Bangladesh is hosting over 1.1 million Rohingyas in Cox's Bazar and Bhasan Char.
"The programmes are yet to be finalised," said the spokesperson about Chollet's planned February 14-15 visit.
Chollet previously held positions at the state department, the White House, and the Department of Defence.
From 2012-2015, he was the US assistant secretary of defence for international security affairs, where he managed US defence policy towards Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Western Hemisphere.
Before joining the Pentagon, Chollet served at the White House as special assistant to the president and senior director for strategic planning on the National Security Council (NSC) staff.
From 2009 to 2011, he was the principal deputy director of the state department's policy planning staff.
He served on the 2020 Biden-Harris State Department transition team as well as the 2008 Obama-Biden NSC transition team.
Read more: US Counselor Chollet's visit to help strengthen Dhaka-Washington ties: Spokesperson
US lauds countries, partners including Bangladesh who participated in COVID-19 Global Action Plan
The United States has offered its appreciation to those countries and partners including Bangladesh who participated in the COVID-19 Global Action Plan throughout the past year.
Argentina, Australia, Belize, Botswana, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Maldives, Morocco, Namibia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, the African Union (Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), the European Union, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the World Health Organization (WHO) are among the countries and partners.
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen participated in the virtual COVID-19 Global Action Plan (GAP) Foreign Ministerial Meeting convened by the State Secretary of the USA, Antony J. Blinken on Wednesday.
One year ago, a diverse group of governments and organizations gathered to launch the COVID-19 Pandemic Prioritized Global Action Plan for Enhanced Engagement (“GAP”) with the objective of focusing political will and enhancing coordination to end the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and strengthen readiness for future pandemic threats, according to Chair’s statement at the COVID-19 Global Action Plan Ministerial.
The GAP built on global COVID-19 response activities and commitments with a focus on six immediate Lines of Effort (LOEs): (1) Turning Vaccines into Vaccinations; (2) Bolstering Supply Chain Resilience; (3) Addressing Information Gaps; (4) Supporting Health Care Workers; (5) Promoting Acute Non-Vaccine Interventions; and (6) Strengthening the Global Health Security Architecture by advancing immediate and long-term reforms and governance that will impact both pandemic response today and future global health security.
On Wednesday, the GAP partners re-convened to assess the work of the GAP, identify remaining barriers to managing COVID-19, and reflect upon lessons learned to promote future collaboration to address global health security threats.
GAP Ministers and partners hailed the complementary domestic, bilateral, and multilateral efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, and welcomed in particular the actions that have accelerated medical countermeasure access and distribution through increased response coordination across GAP countries.
They also acknowledged the challenges that remain and reaffirmed their shared enduring commitment to working together to address these challenges.
U.S. Secretary of State Blinken noted that by enhancing coordination among partners – and elevating the level of political commitment and strategic communication – the GAP provided a forum to advance global health security efforts, to help save lives and livelihoods, and to operationalize the axiom that “health security is national security.”
Enhanced Engagement in Combatting COVID-19
GAP partners affirmed the importance of collective, coordinated political action in addressing the pandemic. COVID-19 highlighted that diseases pose a direct threat to core elements of foreign policy, including economic growth and development; peace and security; and equity and human dignity, renewing awareness of the need to view global health from a broad perspective.
It also demonstrated that no one country acting alone can stop a pandemic; the greatest successes in combatting COVID-19 have occurred when countries, regions, and global and multilateral institutions have acted together. Building on the two leader-level COVID-19 Summits hosted by the White House, the GAP established a political mechanism for pandemic crisis management to exchange information and coordinate responses.
Reflection on the Global Action Plan
Participants took the opportunity to review the accomplishments of the GAP. They asserted that the GAP played a significant role, together with other multilateral and bilateral efforts, in generating political will and attention to drive new and existing efforts to advance common priorities and coordinated efforts to end the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Together, GAP partners have coordinated resources and capacities, and driven toward global COVID-19 vaccination targets.
Cooperating with initiatives like the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) including COVAX, Global VAX, and the COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery Partnership (CoVDP), the average vaccination rate in GAP-targeted lower-income countries increased to over 50 percent, and in many of the targeted countries reached nearly full coverage for all at-risk health workers and older people.
Partners noted that around 13 billion vaccine doses have been delivered globally. GAP members helped facilitate last-mile support for almost 80 countries; large-scale assistance to vaccinate, test, and treat; new policies to help achieve vaccine targets for high-risk populations including the elderly and health workers; supported youth vaccination and booster campaigns; and worked toward integrating COVID-19 services into routine health systems.
Country partners also worked to create cold storage solutions appropriate for challenging environments, and to expand access to non-vaccine interventions, including testing, oral antivirals, and medical oxygen.
GAP partners supported regional diversification of manufacturing and regional hubs for mRNA vaccine development and agreed to establish an implementation group to improve global access to medical supplies and services through a global clearinghouse mechanism for COVID-19-related products.
They shared information on harmful mis- and disinformation, condemned active disinformation campaigns, and supported community-level interventions to combat information gaps.
Further Work on the COVID-19 Response
At the Ministerial today, participants identified areas needing further work, noting that global suffering caused by COVID-19 has not ended despite heroic efforts by our healthcare workers, private citizens, institutions, and organizations.
Even with the current wide availability of vaccines, there is a persistent need to focus efforts on protecting the world’s most vulnerable from COVID-19, including through flexible and targeted strategies to address barriers to vaccinating the most vulnerable and at-risk populations, especially in disaster and conflict zones.
Partners called for continued work to integrate COVID-19 vaccines, including boosters, into each country’s national vaccine strategy, while minimizing future disruptions to routine immunizations and health services.
They acknowledged the great strides made in testing and treatment, but also noted that more needs to be done to address equitable access, including to diagnostic testing, oral antivirals, and medical oxygen.
Partners noted the importance of identifying appropriate opportunities for coordination and investment by the global community for improved access and demand in low- and low-middle income countries for safe, effective, and affordable medical countermeasures, including therapeutics.
GAP partners affirmed the need for genetic sequencing and rapid reporting for the timely detection of emerging variants of concern.
Need for Future Cooperation
Participants welcomed the heightened interest in health security as a foreign policy concern.
They affirmed their commitment to promote international cooperation and coordination through political dialogue, exchange of experiences, and strategic discussions – including building genuine partnerships with a wide range of relevant stakeholders.
They vowed to fight any attempt to weaponize health issues through information manipulation and interference, including disinformation.
Ministers stated that lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic must be used to inform the future response to be better prepared when new infectious disease threats emerge.
They called for strengthening the global health architecture and national, regional, and global capacities related to biosurveillance, epidemiological intelligence, labs, genomic sequencing, and primary care systems.
Participants noted the need for pandemic surge capacities and platforms to promote more rapid and equitable responses and access to affordable medical countermeasures, and discussed the desire for rapid, consistent, and transparent outbreak-related information, data, and sample sharing.
GAP participants noted the need for strong, resilient healthcare systems with effective infection prevention and control measures, including pursuing universal health coverage.
They also called for ensuring timely access to critical medical countermeasures, including in humanitarian settings during future health crises.
In order to sustain evolving demand for the production of vaccines, tests, and treatments for COVID-19 and future threats, GAP partners recognized the need to stay focused on diversifying production and supporting new producers and platforms including through consideration of competitive pricing, demand generation schemes, voluntary transfer of technology on mutually agreed terms, capacity-building, and skills and regulatory strengthening.
GAP partners affirmed the principle that no one is truly safe until everyone is safe, and the global community remains at risk so long as COVID-19 continues to spread and evolve. Participants hailed the importance of the GAP as a model for resolving gaps in future pandemic response.
They committed to remain engaged on the critical and timely work ahead and reconvene as needed to enhance action and coordination needed to better prepare for future health security threats, in a rapid, transparent, safe, secure, accountable, and equitable manner.
GAP partners welcomed international initiatives for better legal, financial, and coordination frameworks for pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response, and confirmed their commitment to building global consensus toward a safer world.
Read more: ‘World Bank should support countries hit hard by Covid-19, Russia-Ukraine war, climate change’
US downs Chinese balloon over ocean, moves to recover debris
The United States on Saturday downed a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the Carolina coast after it traversed sensitive military sites across North America and became the latest flashpoint in tensions between Washington and Beijing.
An operation was underway in U.S. territorial waters in the Atlantic Ocean to recover debris from the balloon, which had been flying at about 60,000 feet and was estimated to be about the size of three school buses.
President Joe Biden had told reporters earlier Saturday that “we’re going to take care of it,” when asked about the balloon. The Federal Aviation Administration and Coast Guard worked to clear the airspace and water below the balloon as it reached the ocean.
Television footage showed a small explosion, followed by the balloon descending toward the water. U.S. military jets were seen flying in the vicinity and ships were deployed in the water to mount the recovery operation.
Officials were aiming to time the operation so they could recover as much of the debris as possible before it sinks into the ocean. The Pentagon had previously estimated that any debris field would be substantial.
The balloon was spotted Saturday morning over the Carolinas as it approached the coast. In preparation for the operation, the FAA Administration temporarily closed airspace over the Carolina coastline, including the airports in Charleston and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina. The FAA rerouted air traffic from the area and warned of delays as a result of the flight restrictions.
The Coast Guard advised mariners to immediately leave the area because of U.S. military operations “that present a significant hazard.”
Biden had been inclined to down the balloon over land when he was first briefed on it on Tuesday, but Pentagon officials advised against it, warning that the potential risk to people on the ground outweighed the assessment of potential Chinese intelligence gains.
The public disclosure of the balloon this week prompted the cancellation of a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Beijing scheduled for Sunday for talks aimed at reducing U.S.-China tensions. The Chinese government on Saturday sought to play down the cancellation.
“In actuality, the U.S. and China have never announced any visit, the U.S. making any such announcement is their own business, and we respect that,” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Saturday morning.
China has continued to claim that the balloon was merely a weather research “airship” that had been blown off course. The Pentagon rejected that out of hand — as well as China’s contention that it was not being used for surveillance and had only limited navigational ability.
The balloon was spotted over Montana, which is home to one of America’s three nuclear missile silo fields at Malmstrom Air Force Base.
The Pentagon also acknowledged reports of a second balloon flying over Latin America. “We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon,” Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a question about the second balloon.
Blinken, who had been due to depart Washington for Beijing late Friday, said he had told senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi in a phone call that sending the balloon over the U.S. was “an irresponsible act and that (China’s) decision to take this action on the eve of my visit is detrimental to the substantive discussions that we were prepared to have.”
Uncensored reactions on the Chinese internet mirrored the official government stance that the U.S. was hyping the situation. Some used it as a chance to poke fun at U.S. defenses, saying it couldn’t even defend against a balloon, and nationalist influencers leapt to use the news to mock the U.S.
China has denied any claims of spying and said it is a civilian-use balloon intended for meteorology research. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized that the balloon’s journey was out of its control and urged the U.S. not to “smear” it based on the balloon.
Read more: China plays down Blinken’s canceled visit over balloon
With Philippine pact, US steps up efforts to counter China
The Philippines said Thursday it was allowing U.S. forces to broaden their footprint in the Southeast Asian nation, the latest Biden administration move bolstering an arc of military alliances in the Indo-Pacific to better counter China, including in any future confrontation over Taiwan.
Thursday’s agreement, which gives U.S. forces access to four more military camps, was announced during a visit by U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. He has led efforts to strengthen America’s security alliances in Asia in the face of China’s increasing assertiveness toward Taiwan and territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
“It’s a big deal,” Austin said at a news conference, while noting the agreement did not mean the re-establishment of permanent American bases in the Philippines.
In a televised news conference with his Philippine counterpart, Carlito Galvez Jr., Austin gave assurances of U.S. military support and said the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty, which obligates the U.S. and the Philippines to help defend each other in major conflicts, “applies to armed attacks on either of our armed forces, public vessels or aircraft anywhere in the South China Sea.”
“We discussed concrete actions to address destabilizing activities in the waters,” Austin said. “This is part of our effort to modernize our alliance, and these efforts are especially important as the People’s Republic of China continues to advance its illegitimate claims in the West Philippine Sea.”
American leaders have long sought to reorient U.S. foreign policy to better reflect the rise of China as a significant military and economic competitor, as well as to better deal with the lasting threat from North Korea.
The tensions between China and Taiwan will be high on the agenda next week when U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to meet with China’s new foreign minister, Qin Gang.
China claims the self-ruled island as its own territory — to be taken by force if necessary — and Beijing has sent warships, bombers, fighter jets and support aircraft into airspace near Taiwan on a near-daily basis, sparking concerns of a potential blockade or military action.
The announcement from the Philippines follows a U.S.-Japan declaration on Jan. 11 that those two countries’ militaries would be updating and strengthening their defense posture, as well as other earlier pledges of greater military cooperation from Indo-Pacific partners stretching as far south as Australia.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswomen Mao Ning responded Thursday by accusing the United States of pursuing “its selfish agenda.”
“The U.S. has adhered to a Cold War zero-sum mentality and strengthened military deployment in the region,” Mao told reporters at a daily briefing. “This is an act that escalates tensions in the region and endangers regional peace and stability.”
U.S. and Philippine officials also said that “substantial” progress has been made in projects at five Philippine military bases, where U.S. military personnel were earlier granted access by Filipino officials. Construction of American facilities at those bases has been underway for years but has been hampered by unspecified local issues.
China and the Philippines, along with Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan, have been locked in increasingly tense territorial disputes over the busy and resource-rich South China Sea. Washington lays no claims to the strategic waters but has deployed its warships and fighter and surveillance aircraft for patrols that it says promote freedom of navigation and the rule of law but have infuriated Beijing.
Austin thanked President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., whom he briefly met in Manila, for allowing the U.S. military to broaden its presence in the Philippines, Washington’s oldest treaty ally in Asia.
“I have always said that it seems to me that the future of the Philippines and for that matter the Asia-Pacific will always have to involve the United States simply because those partnerships are so strong,” Marcos told Austin.
Galvez said there was a need for more consultations, including with local officials in provinces where visiting U.S. forces would establish a presence in Philippine military camps.
A few dozen leftist activities held a noisy protest Thursday and set a mock U.S. flag ablaze outside the main military camp where Austin held talks with his Philippine counterpart. While the two countries are allies, leftist groups and nationalists have resented and often protested boisterously against the U.S. military presence in this former American colony.
The country used to host two of the largest U.S. Navy and Air Force bases outside the American mainland. The bases were shut down in the early 1990s after the Philippine Senate rejected an extension, but American forces later returned for large-scale combat exercises with Filipino troops.
The Philippine Constitution prohibits the permanent basing of foreign troops and their involvement in local combat. The countries’ Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement allows visiting American forces to stay indefinitely in rotating batches in barracks and other buildings they construct within designated Philippine camps with their defense equipment, except nuclear weapons.
Philippine military and defense officials said in November the U.S. had sought access to five more local military camps mostly in the northern Philippine region of Luzon.
Two of the camps where the U.S. wanted to gain access are in Cagayan province near Luzon island’s northern tip, across a sea border from Taiwan, the Taiwan Strait and southern China. Other camps that would host American forces are along the country’s western coast, including in the provinces of Palawan and Zambales, which face the disputed South China Sea.
“The Philippine-US alliance has stood the test of time and remains ironclad,” the allies said in their statement. “We look forward to the opportunities these new sites will create to expand our cooperation together.”
Austin is the latest high-ranking American official to travel to the Philippines after Vice President Kamala Harris visited in November, in a sign of warming ties after a strained period under Marcos’s predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte.
Duterte had nurtured cozy ties with China and Russia and at one point threatened to sever relations with Washington, eject American forces and abrogate the Visiting Forces Agreement that allows thousands of American forces to come each year for large-scale combat exercises.
“I am confident that we will continue to work together to defend our shared values of freedom, democracy and human dignity,” Austin said. “As you heard me say before, the United States and the Philippines are more than just allies. We’re family.”
Read more: US, Philippines agree on larger American military presence
Targeting Iran, US tightens Iraq's dollar flow, causing pain
For months, the United States has restricted Iraq’s access to its own dollars, trying to stamp out what Iraqi officials describe as rampant money laundering that benefits Iran and Syria. Iraq is now feeling the crunch, with a drop in the value of its currency and public anger blowing back against the prime minister.
The exchange rate for the Iraqi dinar has jumped to around 1,680 to the dollar at street exchanges, compared to the official rate of 1,460 dinars to the dollar.
The devaluation has already sparked protests. If it persists, analysts said, it could challenge the mandate of the government formed in October after a yearlong political stalemate.
The dinar’s deterioration comes even though Iraq’s foreign currency reserves are at an all-time high of around $100 billion, pumped up by spiking global oil prices that have brought increasing revenues to the petroleum-rich nation.
But accessing that money is a different story.
Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Iraq’s foreign currency reserves have been housed at the United States' Federal Reserve, giving the Americans significant control over Iraq’s supply of dollars. The Central Bank of Iraq requests dollars from the Fed and then sells them to commercial banks and exchange houses at the official exchange rate through a mechanism known as the “dollar auction.”
In the past, daily sales through the auction often exceeded $200 million per day.
Ostensibly, the vast majority of the dollars sold in the auction are meant to go to purchases of goods imported by Iraqi companies, but the system has long been porous and easily abused, multiple Iraqi banking and political officials told The Associated Press.
U.S. officials confirmed to the AP that they suspected the system was used for money laundering but declined to comment in detail on the allegations or the new restrictions.
For years, large quantities of dollars were transferred out of the country to Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and Lebanon through “gray market trading, using fake invoices for overpriced items," a financial adviser to the Iraqi prime minister said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The inflated invoices were used to launder dollars, with most of them sent to Iran and Syria, which are under U.S. sanctions, leading to complaints from American officials, he said.
In other cases, the currency is smuggled across land borders under the protection of armed groups that take a cut of the cash, said Tamkeen Abd Sarhan al-Hasnawi, chairman of the board of Mosul Bank and first deputy of the Iraq Private Banks League. He estimated that as much as 80% of the dollars sold through the auction went to neighboring countries.
“Syria, Turkey, and Iran used to benefit from the dollar auction in Iraq,” he said.
A member of one of Iraq’s Iran-backed militias, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the subject, said the majority of Iraqi banks are owned indirectly by politicians and political parties that have also used the dollar auction to their benefit.
Late last year, the Fed began imposing stricter measures.
Among other steps, at the request of the U.S., the Central Bank of Iraq started using an electronic system for transfers that required entering detailed information on the intended end-recipient of the requested dollars. One hundred Central Bank employees were trained by the Fed to implement the new system, the prime minister’s financial adviser said.
“This system started rejecting transfers and invoices that used to be approved by the central bank,” he said. “Around 80% of transactions were being rejected.”
The amount of dollars sold daily in the auction plummeted to $69.6 million on Jan. 31, from $257.8 million six months earlier, according to Central Bank records. Far fewer of the dollars are going toward buying imports as well, down to around 34% from 90%.
Even when transactions are approved, it takes banks up to 15 days to get the funds rather than two or three days, Hasnawi said.
Unable to get dollars at the official price through banks, he said, traders turned to the black market to buy dollars, causing the price to rise.
In November, the Central Bank of Iraq added four new banks to the list of those banned from dealing in dollars. Two U.S. officials confirmed that the Fed requested the four banks be blocked because of suspected money laundering. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment on the case.
A spokesperson for the New York Fed declined to discuss the specific measures taken with regards to Iraq. But the Fed said in a statement that it enforces “a robust compliance regime” for the accounts it holds. The statement said that this regime “evolves over time in response to new information, which we gather in the regular course of monitoring transactions and events that may impact an account and in communication with other relevant U.S. government agencies.”
The system of keeping Iraq’s oil revenues at the Fed was originally imposed by U.N. Security Council resolutions after the 2003 ouster of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein by the U.S-led invasion. Later, Iraq chose to maintain the system to protect its revenues against potential lawsuits, particularly in connection to Iraq’s 1990s invasion of Kuwait.
The new U.S. restrictions come at a time of increased tensions between the U.S. and Iran. Negotiations over a nuclear deal are floundering. Washington has imposed new sanctions and condemned Iran for cracking down on protesters and providing drones for Russia to use in Ukraine.
Also, in Iraq, allegations came to light in October that over $2.5 billion in Iraqi government revenue was embezzled by a network of businesses and officials from the country’s tax authority
The case “brought (U.S.) attention to the scale of corruption in Iraq” and how the corruption can benefit Iran and other parties hostile to the U.S., said Harith Hasan, head of the Iraq unit at the Emirates Research Center, an Abu Dhabi-based think tank.
The new Iraqi prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, who came to power via a coalition of Iranian-backed parties, does not have a strong relationship with the U.S. that could have enabled him to soften the implementation of the new financial measures, Hasan said.
Al-Sudani has downplayed the current devaluation as “a temporary issue of trading and speculation.” He replaced the Central Bank governor and instituted measures intended to ensure a supply of dollars at the official rate.
Al-Hasnawi said the government's recent measures will not stop the financial bleeding. If the current situation persists, he said, “within one year, most banks will declare bankruptcy” and there is likely to be mass civil unrest.
“This U.S. pressure impacts the Iraqi street in a clear manner, and we do not see clear solutions until now,” he said.
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AP staff reporters Samya Kullab in Baghdad and Christopher Rugaber in Washington contributed to this report. Sewell reported from Beirut.
US, Philippines agree on larger American military presence
The United States and the Philippines announced an agreement Thursday to expand America's military presence in the Southeast Asian country, with U.S. forces granted access to four more Philippine military camps, effectively giving Washington new ground to ramp up deterrence against China.
The agreement between the longtime treaty allies under a 2014 defense pact was made public during the visit of U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who has led efforts to strengthen America’s security alliances in Asia amid China’s increasing assertiveness toward Taiwan and in the disputed South China Sea.
The allies also said in a joint statement that “substantial” progress has been made in projects at five Philippine military bases, where U.S. military personnel were earlier granted access by Filipino officials under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, or EDCA. Construction of American facilities in the camps has been underway for years but has been hampered by unspecified local issues.
Austin thanked President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., whom he briefly met in Manila, for allowing the U.S. military to broaden its presence in the Philippines.
“I have always said that it seems to me that the future of the Philippines and for that matter the Asia-Pacific will always have to involve the United States simply because those partnerships are so strong,” Marcos told Austin.
In a televised news conference later with his Philippine counterpart, Carlito Galvez Jr., Austin gave assurances of U.S. military support and said the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty, which obligates the U.S. and the Philippines to help defend one another in major conflicts, “applies to armed attacks on either of our armed forces, public vessels or aircraft anywhere in the South China Sea.”
“We discussed concrete actions to address destabilizing activities in the waters,” Austin said without elaborating. “This is part of our effort to modernize our alliance and these efforts are especially important as the People’s Republic of China continues to advance its illegitimate claims in the West Philippine Sea.”
Austin and Galvez declined to provide more details on the agreement. The U.S. defense chief said it did not mean the re-establishment of permanent American bases but noted that “it’s a big deal.”
Galvez said there was a need for more consultations, including with local officials in provinces where visiting U.S. forces would establish a presence in Philippine military camps.
China claims the self-ruled island of Taiwan as its own territory, to be taken by force if necessary, and Beijing has sent warships, bombers, fighter jets and support aircraft into airspace near Taiwan on a near-daily basis, sparking concerns of a potential blockade or military action.
Philippine military and defense officials said in November the U.S. had sought access to five more local military camps mostly in the northern Philippine region of Luzon.
Also Read: Philippines seeks to cleanse police force of drug ties
Two of the additional camps where the U.S. wanted to gain access are in Cagayan province near Luzon island’s northern tip, across a sea border from Taiwan, the Taiwan Strait and southern China. Other camps that would host American forces are along the country’s western coast, including in the provinces of Palawan and Zambales, which face the disputed South China Sea.
China and the Philippines, along with Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have been locked in increasingly tense territorial disputes over the busy and resource-rich South China Sea. Washington lays no claims in the strategic waters but has deployed its warships and fighter and surveillance aircraft for patrols that it says promote freedom of navigation and the rule of law but have infuriated Beijing.
“The Philippine-US alliance has stood the test of time and remains ironclad,” the allies said in their statement. “We look forward to the opportunities these new sites will create to expand our cooperation together.”
The Philippines, Washington’s oldest treaty ally in Asia, used to host two of the largest U.S. Navy and Air Force bases outside the American mainland. The bases were shut down in the early 1990s after the Philippine Senate rejected an extension, but American forces returned for large-scale combat exercises with Filipino troops under a 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement and the EDCA pact.
The Philippine Constitution prohibits the permanent basing of foreign troops and their involvement in local combat. The EDCA pact allows visiting American forces to indefinitely stay in rotating batches in barracks and other buildings they construct within designated Philippine camps with their defense equipment, except nuclear weapons.
Austin is the latest high-ranking American official to travel to the Philippines after Vice President Kamala Harris visited in November in a sign of warming ties after a strained period under Marcos’s predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte.
Duterte had nurtured cozy ties with China and Russia and at one point threatened to sever relations with Washington, eject American forces and abrogate the Visiting Forces Agreement that allows thousands of American forces to come each year for large-scale combat exercises.
“I am confident that we will continue to work together to defend our shared values of freedom, democracy and human dignity,” Austin said. “As you heard me say before, the United States and the Philippines are more than just allies. We’re family.”
___
Associated Press journalists Joeal Calupitan in Manila, the Philippines and Kiko Rosario in Bangkok, Thailand contributed to this report.
US sanctions Myanmar officials, military-affiliated 'cronies' ahead of coup anniversary
The US Tuesday, the day before the two-year anniversary of the military coup d'état that deposed Myanmar's democratically elected government, imposed sanctions on six individuals and three entities linked to the regime's efforts to generate revenue and procure arms.
They include senior leadership of Myanmar's Ministry of Energy, Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise, Air Force, as well as an arms dealer and a family member of a previously designated business associate of the military.
The US also sanctioned the Union Electoral Commission, which the "regime has deployed to advance its plans for deeply flawed elections that would subvert the will of the people of Myanmar."
"We are taking today's action in conjunction with actions also being taken by the United Kingdom and Canada. To date, we have sanctioned, under Executive Order 14014, 80 individuals and 30 entities to deprive the regime of the means to perpetuate its violence and to promote the democratic aspirations of Myanmar's people," US Secretary of State Antony J Blinken said in a media statement.
Two years ago, Myanmar's military regime "usurped power from a democratically elected government – "blatantly rejecting the will of Myanmar's people, setting the country on a disastrous path that has killed and displaced thousands, reversing the hard-fought democratic progress achieved over the last decade, he added.
Since the military coup on February 1, 2021, the political, economic, and humanitarian crisis in Myanmar has only grown direr, with reports indicating nearly 3,000 killed, nearly 17,000 detained, and more than 1.5 million displaced.
The regime's ongoing scorched-earth campaign continues to inflict harm and claim the lives of innocent people, fueling a worsening armed conflict within Myanmar and insecurity beyond its borders, the secretary of state said.
Read more: How Myanmar is faring 2 years after army ousted Suu Kyi
"The United States remains firm in our position that the regime's planned elections cannot be free or fair, not while the regime has killed, detained, or forced possible contenders to flee, nor while it continues to inflict brutal violence against its peaceful opponents," he added.
"The United States will continue to support the pro-democracy movement and its efforts to advance peace and multiparty governance in Myanmar. We commend those working to strengthen unity and cohesion among diverse groups who share a vision of a genuine and inclusive democracy in Myanmar," Blinken said.
The United States will also continue to promote accountability for the military's atrocities, including through support to the UN's Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar and other international efforts to protect and support vulnerable populations, including Rohingya, he added.
"We welcome the actions taken by our allies and partners to urge the regime to end the crisis. We look forward to building on our cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its members, with the UN following the recent passage of the UN Security Council Resolution on the situation in Myanmar, and with the international community writ-large, as partners seek to uphold the ASEAN Five-Point Consensus, intensify diplomatic and economic pressure against the military, and support a peaceful, democratic, and prosperous Myanmar," the secretary of state said.