MEXICO CITY (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th February, 2023) China has officially apologized to Costa Rica for the incident with the balloon that violated the latter's airspace, the Latin American country's foreign ministry said.
On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning admitted that a high-altitude balloon spotted in the skies over Latin America belonged to China, after the recent discovery of a similar device over the United States.
"The Chinese Foreign Ministry apologized for the incident through its embassy in San Jose," the Costa Rican foreign ministry said in a statement, cited by the Costa Rica Hoy news agency.
The Chinese embassy said that the balloon posed no threat to any country and entered the airspace of Costa Rica by mistake, as it seriously deviated from the initially scheduled course due to weather conditions, according to the statement.
Last week, the Pentagon discovered a Chinese balloon over Latin America, the second one that Beijing claims mistakenly deviated from its course due to weather conditions.
The first balloon spotted over the continental US was shot down by the country's military on Saturday. Washington insists that the balloon was sent over to spy on military sites, while China maintains that it was a civilian airship engaged in scientific research, mainly meteorological studies. China expressed has strong protest over the shooting of the balloon and said that it reserves the right to take further necessary actions.
