Japan 'Strongly Suspects' Chinese Surveillance Balloons Entered Its Airspace, Says 'Unacceptable'

The ministry in a statement said that the balloons were detected in 2019, 2020, and 2021. 

Japan on Tuesday said that it "strongly suspects" Chinese surveillance balloons have entered Japanese territory

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New Delhi: Japan’s government on Wednesday told China that violations of its airspace by uncrewed surveillance balloons were absolutely unacceptable.

The Defence Ministry of Japan on Tuesday said that it "strongly suspects" Chinese surveillance balloons have entered Japanese territory at least three times since 2019.

“As a result of further investigation of specific balloon-shaped flying objects that were confirmed in Japan’s airspace in the past, it is strongly suspected that they were unmanned surveillance balloons from China,” said Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, according to Reuters.

The ministry in a statement said that the balloons were detected in 2019, 2020, and 2021. 

It further stated that Japan had called on China's government to verify the facts of the situation and make sure it does not happen again.

Meanwhile, Romania and neighbouring Moldova reported a mysterious weather balloon-like object traversing their skies after which the former briefly scrambled military jets while the latter temporarily closed its airspace, reported news agency the Associated Press.

Romania’s defence ministry said it deployed two jets that are under NATO command to its southeastern skies to seek an aerial object it described as being small with “characteristics similar to a weather balloon.”

“The crews of the two aircraft did not confirm the presence of the aerial target, neither visually nor on the onboard radars,” a ministry statement said, adding that the two MiG-21 LanceR aircraft stayed in the vicinity for about 30 minutes before returning to base.

However, neither country said where they believed the object had come from. 

The incident came just days after similar strings of comparable incidents took place in the US where objects were detected and shot down by warplanes including a high-altitude Chinese balloon that traversed American airspace. China said it was a weather balloon that had accidentally drifted off course.

(With inputs from Reuters)