The Costa Rican Foreign Ministry has summoned the Chinese ambassador in San Jose to condemn the detection of a balloon in the airspace of the Central American country.
The Chinese Embassy in the capital of the Central American country has reiterated that «the balloon that was observed from various points of the national territory was of civilian character and had scientific purposes, mainly meteorological», according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.
Also, the Chinese authorities have assured that «the object did not represent any threat to any country and its presence in Costa Rica was due to a deviation from the scheduled route due to weather conditions and limited self-steering capability».
«The Costa Rican Ministry of Foreign Affairs has taken note of the explanations received», continues the letter, in which it points out that for the Costa Rican government «it is a priority to maintain its mission of safeguarding national sovereignty, demanding from the international community the unrestricted respect for international law, sovereignty and territorial integrity» of the country.
The Government of China confirmed Monday that the balloon detected in Latin America, similar to the device shot down Saturday by U.S. forces over the Atlantic Ocean, is also theirs, but again insisted that it has only «civilian purposes».
The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Mao Ning, has indicated that this second balloon would have entered «by mistake» in the airspace of several countries, insisting that Beijing respects international law and «does not represent any threat to any country».
Mao has avoided however to answer specific questions about the exact reasons for the loss of control of balloons in such a short period of time: «I am not an expert». What the spokeswoman did insist on is to label as «unacceptable and irresponsible» the decision taken by the U.S. authorities in the face of what Beijing considers an «isolated incident».
The U.S. Department of Defense reported Friday night the presence of a second Chinese balloon over Latin America and the Colombian Air Force confirmed the sighting over the weekend. The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry, on the other hand, joined the Chinese thesis and condemned the downing of the first balloon.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
