President Biden's administration is seeking to "move beyond" the controversy caused by Chinese spy balloons shot down over the continental United States, The Associated Press reports.
The drastic shift in tone came from White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan during a meeting with Chinese foreign policy adviser Wang Yi.
The two officials spoke at a meeting in Vienna on Wednesday and Thursday, during which they reportedly agreed the February incident was "unfortunate."
The White House called the unpublicized meeting between Washington and Beijing leaders as "candid" and "constructive."
An administrative official familiar with the meeting, speaking with members of the press on condition of anonymity, said both the White House and CCP leadership are looking to "reestablish standard, normal channels of communications" after months of tensions caused by the foreign aircraft.
Many had speculated the Chinese balloon gathered intelligence from U.S. military sites as it roamed freely across the country from Jan. 28 to Feb. 4 before being shot down over South Carolina.
US OFFICIALS DOWNPLAY SIGNIFICANCE OF INTEL CAPTURED BY CHINESE SPY CRAFT OVER AMERICAN SOIL
According to several current and former U.S. officials in an April report, the Biden administration struggled to block the intelligence gathering of the Chinese spy balloon that ultimately fed information to Beijing in real time.
Last month, Montana Republican Sen. Steve Daines told Fox News Digital that even briefings with intelligence officials left him with more questions than answers.
On Feb. 9, Daines posed 10 questions for the Biden administration, including why the balloon was allowed to enter U.S. airspace, how close it got to Montana's Malmstrom Air Force Base and missile silos, and what other sensitive national security and military sites it flew over – all of which remain unanswered.
Fox News' Houston Keene contributed to this report.
