“The Pentagon has filed an application for a secure conversation between Austin and the Minister of Defense of China ... Unfortunately, the application was rejected by the PRC,” RIA Novosti reports a message from the Pentagon press service.
The department expressed hope for maintaining open lines of communication between the United States and China.
Earlier it became known that the first batch of debris from a Chinese balloon shot down by the US military was delivered for analysis to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The Russian Foreign Ministry called the US impulsive reaction to the situation with the Chinese balloon.
At the same time, Beijing's actions were called responsible in the Russian Foreign Ministry.