A top US military commander said on Monday that the America spoke to India about its ways of tackling the threat posed by a Chinese 'spy' balloon that entered its airspace earlier this year.

US Pacific Air Forces Commander General Kenneth Wilsbach said that private discussions were held with air chiefs of several countries in the region, including India, about the incident, which were "brief" and behind closed doors.

“It was not a public comment, but rather private, behind closed doors of some of the situation that occurred with us with the airship that crossed Alaska, Canada, and the United States, and how we went about dealing with it, but it frankly, was not a lot,” General Kenneth Wilsbach was quoted as saying by the Indian Express.

However, he admitted that it wasn't a significant amount of information.

Earlier this year, the US military used an AIM-9X missile to shoot down a balloon from an F-22 fighter jet. This incident was similar to a sighting a year ago over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, prompting the Indian military to create protocols to address potential threats posed by surveillance balloons or unidentified objects in the sky.

Gen Wilsbach is on an official visit to India for Cope India 23, a major bilateral air exercise between the Indian Air Force and the United States Air Force.

The exercise is taking place at multiple Air Force Stations and aims to enhance mutual understanding between the two Air Forces.

“Certainly, we have had some dialogue on it. And I am not open to sharing what information we have gleaned from our analysis of the pieces of the balloon that we got after we shot it down,” he added.

However, Wilsbach said he would discuss something that should concern those who value, free and open Indo Pacific as well as the sovereignty of their airspace.

“And the fact is that we believe that your airspace here in India is your sovereign airspace and that you should decide who gets to fly in it," he said.

He said any country that would violate the sovereignty of another country’s airspace should cause concern.

“In this case, the situation that you were referring to was an unmanned vehicle, an airship of sorts, what if it is manned? Now there could be loss of life, which would be terrible. So, we would encourage any nation that would consider doing this kind of operation to abide by the law,” he said.

Talking about Cope India, he said that this is the first time that two B-1 long-range bombers of the USAF will participate in the bilateral exercise.

The USAF is deploying four to six F-15 fighters, one C-17 and two C-130s for the exercise, he said, adding that the bombers are unique platforms, have a long range and can carry a significant payload.

Pacific Air Forces

Get Swarajya in your inbox.