SYDNEY: The US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Saturday called on Moscow to abide by the laws of the sky and stop “irresponsible behavior” when asked about Russian assaults on American drones in Syria.
According to the US military, a MQ-9 drone over Syria was damaged when it was hit with a flare from a Russian jet earlier this week, the latest in a series of close interactions between Russian and American military aircraft in the region.
US Defense Secretary Calls on Moscow to Stop ‘Irresponsible Behavior’ in Syria
Austin told a press conference in Brisbane, “We call upon Moscow to make sure that they issue guidance to their force to follow the laws of the sky and also make sure that they end this irresponsible behavior,”.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Austin are in Australia for the annual Australia-U.S. Ministerial dialogue. The US Defense Minister said, “We will continue to maintain engagement to utilizing all the established channels in order to convey our concern, and we will continue to engage top leadership as appropriate”.
Austin further said, “We will continue to operate, as we have always operated in the airspaces, and we will secure our resources and interests,”.
Earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Washington believes Russia’s Minister for Defence is in North Korea to secure supplies of arms to aid the stalled incursion of Ukraine.
After Russian Minister for Defense’s arrival on a rare visit to Pyongyang, the US top diplomat said that Moscow is scrambling to buy weapons from allies across the world.
Antony Blinken told reporters in Australia that they were seeing Moscow desperately looking for support, for arms, wherever it can find them to continue its war in Ukraine.
