a fast developing situation. u.s. official are careful about how much they weigh in on this because putin could weaponize what they share. the overwhelming message has been they are in support of ukraine. president biden spoke with the leaders of france, germany and the united kingdom yesterday. and the read-out of that call says they talked about russia and the situation there, but also that they were in support of the war or ukraine as it continues to fight its war. secretary of state anthony blinking also talking to allies, including the ukrainian foreign minister. so behind the scenes, to allies and partners as part of the strategy here as they try to wrap their arms around this entire situation. wolf? all right. priscilla, thank you very much. joining us now cnn national security analyst, the former cia chief of russia operations, steve hall. thanks for joining us.
crisis. it was important for both sides. the chinese were confident of the anthony blinking visit, there were hints that the chinese president would meet him. there were signs that preparations were being made for a more contained in reasonable conversation between the us and china than we have seen for some time. it fits in with a charm offensive that china has launched in the last two months to say, look, lockdown is over, come back, come and invest. all of these things have been quite badly damaged by this episode. it is mystifying. i through the pla, whose presumably whose balloon this is, was not looking at the diplomatic moment, or it was a rather stupid provocation. here in the uk, lancashire police investigating the disappearance of mother of two nicola bulley
feel they have it pretty well contained and can presumably cancel any signals that it is sending, but unfortunately the political reaction in the united states is not so easily containable and within hours of this news being public we can see the american republican writes, donald trump, being very, very large about the failure of the joe donald trump, being very, very large about the failure of thejoe biden administration to take a strong line on china. had anthony blinking proceeded with the visit as planned, that would have left the biden administration hostage to these attacks about its failure to deal with china, even as anthony blinking would be sitting down in beijing, the republican right would say that they were allowing a spy balloon to hover over the us s most sensitive
themselves earlier this thursday . through state run media, the foreign ministry announced and the reason that they are hiring these myths tiles is a just counteraction to joint drills. we have seen these drills over the last week. last week, we saw naval drills, and also one involving japan as well. so pyongyang is seeing that is the reason why they are carrying out these missile launches. but they have been widely condemned. the japanese prime minister, calling them absolutely unacceptable. there was a national security council meeting here in south korea today where they warned that north korea will face a stronger risk bonds, and they did say that the uss ronald reagan was moving back into the korean waters. a u.s. navy spokesman s saying that they don t comment on teacher operations. we also heard from the u.s. secretary of state, anthony blinking. he did condemned the lodges as well, but also said the way it
expect her to speak in south korea now, in terms of what s happening next, talk us through that, she is going on to japan, isn t she, anthony blinking at the este summit? isn t she, anthony blinking at the este summit? there is a lot auoin on the este summit? there is a lot going on in the este summit? there is a lot going on in this the este summit? there is a lot going on in this trip the este summit? there is a lot going on in this trip to - the este summit? there is a lot going on in this trip to south - going on in this trip to south korea, is also going to involve a trip to a demilitarised zone, the last time a senior us official went there was 2019, the visit of donald trump during the summer, that will be a big moment as well but as you say the essien summit is going on, us secretary of state is also there, and a few months ago they did release a joint statement and they condemned these chinese military exercises, saying they could destabilise the region and eventually l