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we are coming on the air with breaking news on today's top story. for the first time, we will see secretary of state tony blinken on camera. you're looking at it live on the left side of your screen there. potentially reacting to that suspected chinese spy balloon, flying over u.s. airspace. also this hour, you've got president biden in philadelphia after a better than expected jobs report. we're juggling all of it live here in the next 60 minutes on msnbc. i'm hallie jackson in washington. i want to bring in one of our chief white house correspondents, foreign correspondent janis mackey frayer is live in beijing, and gary locke, former u.s. ambassador to china. let's take a beat. lay out what we know so far about this chinese apparent supply balloon mystery situation. we are about to hear from the secretary of state for the first

time on camera since he postponed his trip to beijing earlier today. the pentagon says they are still tracking this balloon. they also say it is not a threat right now to national security. china has acknowledged the balloon is theirs. they are saying this thing accidentally got off course. they're saying, no, it's not used for surveillance. it's for weather monitoring. our nbc news meteorological team is tracking weather patterns, saying it probably passed over missouri and tennessee earlier today. with that, peter let me start with you here. as we wait in the next couple of mince to see the secretary of state, what's the biggest question in front of him at this point for something that is if not a national security issue, which is still a question mark, absolutely a geopolitical issue. >> it's definitely a geopolitical issue as evidenced by secretary blinken now cancelling this trip where he was supposed to meet with president xi in china. his departure was expected in the next couple of days here. among the questions, some of them for the pentagon, others for the state department and white house as well, where is the balloon right now.

they haven't detailed exactly where it is, despite some apparent sightings in parts of the central united states. how long has this balloon been in the air, how long has the u.s. been aware of it, and why did it take the united states, ultimately secretary blinken, several days before they did postpone the trip during a call with reporters aboard air force one, the white house press secretary karine jean-pierre said president biden was first briefed on the balloon on tuesday, he has continued to receive briefings in the days since then. that will mean that several days have passed since they first were aware of this violation of u.s. airspace and the postponement or cancellation of secretary blinken's travel to china right now. we're also trying to sort out whether the president of the united states will speak to president xi in the coming days about this, and what if any consequences of violation of sovereignty of law. >> let me go to you with the view of beijing.

the chinese have apologized for what they say is a weather balloon that has drifted into the u.s. what do they want to see? what kind of resolution are they looking for? certainly not this balloon getting shot down as some republicans on the hill are calling for. >> reporter: chinese officials spent much of today trying to lower the tension with washington over this balloon dispute. what isn't clear is whether china had alerted the u.s. to this balloon inadvertently straying into u.s. airspace, in the statement they issued on the foreign ministry web site, they did express regret and said they would now talk to u.s. officials to try and, quote, properly handle some of this unexpected situation. but clearly this is terrible timing. not only for the biden administration, but in particular, for china. this was seen as maybe the best diplomatic chance in years to try to reset relations between the u.s. and china, which are strained at best, and

increasingly volatile over trade, semiconductors, taiwan, russia, the list goes on. this is a serious setback. this was supposed to be the first visit by the u.s. secretary of state to china in five years. this visit came out of that summit, very high profile summit between president biden and chinese president xi jinping. on the chinese side, it's an embarrassment. china is losing face, and that is not diplomatically insignificant here. it's been seen as a serious foreign policy blunder, and defense officials have so far said nothing. >> janis mackey frayer live in beijing. thank you very much. i want to bring ambassador locke into the conversation to pick up on what janis laid out. then secretary of state mike pompeo visited. there's a lot that the u.s. and china would have to work through

and talk through. talk about the message it sends that secretary blinken is postponing his trip there? >> it was something that he had to do given the seriousness of the situation, the provocative nature of the chinese spy balloon. yes, it may be a weather satellite, but everybody knows those satellites are also, i mean, balloons are also loaded with electronic surveillance equipment. and this could not have come at the worst time because u.s. china relations are at an all time low, and it was very important to try to reset the dialogue and the relationships to try to move forward on things that the united states and china have very much in common, that they must work on even though they have major and very significant geopolitical differences over trade, over taiwan, et cetera, et cetera, but still, they needed to move forward, and this had to be cancelled. there was no way that secretary blinken could have continued on with that visit. >> you know, peter laid out a

series of questions that i think a lot of people would love for secretary blinken to address in the next couple of minutes when he begins that news conference. one of the questions from your vantage point there on capitol hill, that we have seen from many republicans is well, why not just shoot it down. why not do that. the argument that we have heard from the pentagon, essentially is that this thing is really big and there could be, who knows, you know, collateral damage if it comes down in pieces. talk us through the perspective from lawmakers here and the pressure that some of these republicans are trying to put on president biden and the pentagon. >> you're right, hallie. at this point, republicans are putting pressure on president biden to shoot this thing out of the air. if i go around the horn, many of the republican statements that we have seen today indicate that in some way, shape or form. certainly that is a focus here on capitol hill. i think the other focus, though, is on the larger geopolitical picture. i'll draw your attention, for example, to what senator rick scott said saying that xi is blatantly spying on america because he doesn't fear or

respect joe biden. communist china is our enemy, and another statement, we have congresswoman elise stefanik saying this should be a wake up call for what she says is biden's weakness on the world stage, and she's demanding an immediate intelligence briefing. you know, in the last 24 hours, less than that, we know that staff for the gang of eight have been given a classified briefing on this issue. it's entirely possible it was staff and not the gang of eight itself because yesterday was a flyout day in congress, and this happened late in the day. it's entirely possible that some of the gang of eight lawmakers were out of their way in washington, the fastest way to get them information may have been just to brief their staff. i know when they come back next week, certainly this is something that they're expecting to get more information on even someone like senator jon tester not in that gang of eight. the senator from montana saying he's going to get a classified briefing when he gets back because it's one of the states where the balloon was spotted in its airspace, but right now, the name of the game is asking for

more information, but republicans certainly trying to make this an example of biden's lack of leadership on the world stage, and again, pressuring him for action on that balloon right now. >> so ambassador locke, let me let you jump in on that, right. when you are considering this pressure that you are seeing from some of these lawmakers on the republican side of the aisle, on president biden, and on the defense secretary here, do you believe that's warranted? is it politics? is it a little of both? >> well, it's a little bit of both. obviously the republicans. opposition party has to take their political shots. let's keep in mind that the united states is spying on china with our high altitude satellites, and reconnaissance plains. china does the same, and all the other countries do it with their satellites. china has to use these balloons. they have the capability of collecting intelligence on not just the united states, but countries all around the world. they have dozens and dozens of satellites in the air that are

engaged in surveillance just as the united states and just as our allies do. we just done use balloons anymore. why the chinese are still using them is a question mark, maybe for some of their neighboring countries, very close to them, they want to use these balloons. it's cheap, it's inexpensive, it's controllable, but nowadays all the countries are using high altitude satellites. >> what is up with this from china? we know they have pushed boundaries before. they say this was a mistake, but they have routinely sailed into sovereign airspaces over the last number of years here. is it possible this was done intentionally as a test of the response from the biden administration? >> they would not have wanted to risk the cancellation of the visit by secretary of state blinken, so this was a huge blunder, whether it was lack of coordination by the different elements of the chinese

government, the military, the diplomatic arm, but clearly this was absolutely not necessary, and it was quite frankly stupid, and very clumsy, and there will be repercussions, namely the cancellation of the visit by secretary blinken. the united states is going to have to demonstrate even a tougher attitude and posture, and it needs to do that to let it be known to the chinese that we don't take this lightly, and obviously the administration has to appear strong for the american people as well. >> you know, peter, i'm looking. former secretary of state mike pompeo has been out on another network with some strong comments on this, saying he thinks it can be safely brought down, saying this is a green light for bad guys, he says all around the world. there is, of course, a political backdrop to this as well, as it is speculated that perhaps secretary pompeo is considering a 2024 run of his own. i can't help but think this

china balloon incident lends a backdrop to the president of the union speech just a couple of days ago. on my reporting, a lot of people on both sides of the aisle are interested in what he says about china and his tone. >> you know as well as anybody the president right now is making final decisions about whether to run again in 2024. he has one potential challenger in the former president donald trump saying he'll run. he posted shoot down the balloon on his twitter like posts as well, of course he's not on twitter anymore. he has truth social, he does this, but the bottom line is for republicans, it's an opportunity to take political shots at this administration, and for good reason they are trying to take advantage of that. now whether or not this administration has handled it appropriately or not, americans will make its own decisions here. the white house in its assessment has explained to reporters that they did do what was within their power to limit the balloons intelligence gathering capabilities. we don't know exactly what that

means at this time. we know that secretary austin, he is the defense secretary gathered together with some military leaders just a couple of days ago where they discussed the potential options to take it down in the form of a kinetic action, which is effectively shooting it down, and they said that was not the best decision. the president concurred with that decision at the time, but the bottom line is in a way this thing is hovering over not just the united states, but hovering over the american political system as it's an opportunity for those on all sides to cast the president in this moment, it's either strong or weak but frankly the most urgent issue that most folks at the white house are focussed on is how to do this and the best step forward as it relates to china. >> thank you very much, peter alexander, ali vitali, ambassador gary locke, we appreciate it. the little box on the corner of the screen, waiting for secretary blinken to take to the

microphone. he will be peppered with questions from reporters in the room. we'll bring that live the second that news conference begins. we're watching a number of other events. wall street at the closing bell, a gang buster jobs report wharks what it means for our economy. and president biden ready to speak as he gets ready for his potential 2024 reelection campaign. you see it there, we're live in philly in just 60 seconds. we're philly in just 60 seconds. every day, millions of things need to get to where they're going. and at chevron, we're working to help reduce the carbon intensity of the fuels that keep things moving. today, we're producing renewable diesel that can be used in existing diesel tanks. and we're committed to increasing our renewable fuels production. because as we work toward a lower carbon future, it's only human to keep moving forward. hi, i'm debra. i'm from colorado. i've been married to my high school sweetheart

for 35 years. i'm a mother of four-- always busy. i was starting to feel a little foggy. just didn't feel like things were as sharp as i knew they once were. i heard about prevagen and then i started taking it about two years now. started noticing things a little sharper, a little clearer. i feel like it's kept me on my game. i'm able to remember things. i'd say give it a try. prevagen. at stores everywhere without a prescription. right now as we speak in philadelphia, you've got president biden and vice president harris together here, a rare joint appearance announcing a half billion dollar push to upgrade the city's water system. the latest stop on the infrastructure tour for the administration highlighting some of the big wins from the last couple of years, and potentially looking ahead to 2024. you've got both of these

leaders, president biden, vp harris, set to speak at the democrats' annual meeting tonight in philly. they'll do so with a little bit of wind in their sails. the u.s. adding more than 500,000 jobs this month. unemployment is at the lowest point since 1969. cnbc's senior economics reporter, steve liesman is going to help us get in the numbers in a second. i want to start with mike memoli, posted in philadelphia. a preemptive apology if we interrupt you, president biden f he makes comments on china we're going to take it live, and secretary blinken. the floor at least is yours for now on this. >> the economic agenda and president biden's economic wins over the last two years are going to be front and center, both in his remarks today as we know, they are also sort of a preview for his state of the union remarks on tuesday, i should mention, it's possible we'll hear president biden talk about china, but not necessarily the balloon we have been talking about so far this show.

the core of president biden's stump speech has included a mention of the fact that for the last two decades under multiple administrations of both parties, america has seen its competitive advantage slide as china has been making the kind of investments in its infrastructure that are now underway as biden will say because of his policies and so he has really framed, and you know this, hallie, his academic agenda as an imperative to restore the backbone of the country, the middle class, but also to increase our competitiveness across the world. also those semiconductor, the chips and signs act, a key china related measure as this president has talked about. expect him to talk about that today as well, and one thing in the state of the union address, we might hear china come into play. the other focus as you know is 2024. the president is giving an official speech right now. talking about lead pipe infrastructure, but when he comes here, he's also going to be warning about what's at risk, he'll say, if we let the maga

republican extreme agenda reverse the wins of this generation. the president setting up the state of the union address, and that state of the union setting up his potential reelection campaign. >> there's the question of the calendar and the locations of the calendar and will president biden sort of get what i think he and his allies would like to see. will new hampshire push back hard enough they won't be in the mix as early as they wanted. we know some democratic leaders want to see a more diverse group of states be the early states in 2024. >> it's hard to believe but three years ago today we were all in des moines. it was the day of the iowa caucuses, the muddle that was created when we didn't get a clear result, and it's in part because of what we saw three years ago today that -- >> i blacked it out. >> the dnc is taking the stepping tomorrow, voting to make the calendar official, which will lead to one year from today, south carolina being the first primary in the democratic

nominating calendar. the arguments are both about having an electorate that represents the party, the president when he was a candidate talked repeatedly about the fact that his states, the states he expected to do well and better in than iowa and new hampshire are those that represent the country and the base of the democratic party. it's about bringing states like michigan and georgia earlier in the process. the argument there being that it's not just a diversity play. it's about industrial state in michigan, and battleground states in the presidential campaign. those are part of the arguments that new hampshire is arguing put the party at risk. they have an event on the sidelines of the dnc saying why they think it's a mistake that the dnc is taking away the first in the nation primary. we have a competitive governor's race, two competitive house races and republicans haven't changed their calendar. we see republicans are going to iowa. they're going to new hampshire, and they think by seating the table in new hampshire to the republicans, democrats aren't getting the message out in the same way, and that could hurt them in the general election. >> as you have been speaking, i

can report a fairly significant headline from the president's speech over across the way. he said fly eagles fly, i thought it was an important message to get across to make sure they heard that. steve liesman, i'll go to you. you heard mem lay out the big economic picture here. why that's so critical. be our smart interpreter as you always are. why was this such a rocket ship in january? the expectation was something like 200,000 or less, we saw 517,000. what's up with that? >> you think you have fun covering the politics. how about the excitement of being an economics reporter these days. 187,000 is expected. you get this jaw dropping number of 517,000. the unemployment rate drops to the lowest level since 1969, then you're kind of scrambling to understand it. there's a lot of head scratching. the leisure and hospitality

business, that business or that industry is still running behind where it was before the pandemic. education, i'm sorry, nursing and health care, and social assistance, that sector is just barely above where it was. still some industries scrambling to catch up. there's some also government education that's another place that added a lot of jobs. so some other ones seem a little suspect. even if this number is half of what it was, the story is you had a forecast that the whole economy was heading into recession and slower growth. it's just really hard to say that a recession is right around the corner when you print these kinds of jobs numbers. at the very best, maybe we escape this huge rise in rates by the federal reserve without a recession. >> it's a great break down. steve liesman, thank you, clearly living your best life and thriving in every way with the thrills of covering the

economy. we are watching the state department, of course. you see that again right on screen. secretary blinken, we expect to see truly any minute here. potentially speaking about that suspected chinese spy balloon. his postponed trip overseas, we're going to have that hopefully when we come back. stay with us. g to have that hopefully when we come back. stay with us your business, you can make it even smarter. now ports can know where every piece of cargo is. and where it's going. (dock worker) right on time. (vo) robots can predict breakdowns and order their own replacement parts. (foreman) nice work. (vo) and retailers can get ahead of the fashion trend of the day with a new line tomorrow. with a verizon private 5g network, you can get more agility and security. giving you more control of your business. we call this enterprise intelligence. from the network america relies on. do you struggle with occasional nerve aches in your hands or feet? try nervivenerve relief from the world's #1 selling nerve care company. nervive contains alpha lipoic acid to relieve occasional nerve aches, weakness and discomfort. try nervivenerve relief.

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you are looking, again, at where we expect to see secretary of state tony blinken any minute appearing and presumably in this

news conference with reporters take some questions about that suspected chinese spy balloon that is currently making its way across u.s. airspace. we'll bring that to you live when it happens. and the northeast, where the historic arctic blast is moving in, what the national weather service is calling, these are their words, an epic generational arctic outbreak. the worst is expected to hit tonight and into tomorrow morning. you can see some of the numbers there. it's not going to feel good. feel like 30 blow in boston, 60 below in maine, what could be some of the coldest windchills in decades, so cold you could get frostbite in as little as five minutes. let's go to george solis out of new york city, nbc meteorologist bill karins is with us as well. the best prep is to not go outside, stay if if you can, but these are near records that we're talking about. >> reporter: that's right. you said it best. that is the advice from officials across the northeast. limit your time outdoors, and if

you are going out, take the necessary precautions, have the hat, scarves, we have had such a mild winter, it feels like weather whiplash. a lot of people are going about their day. woke up this morning saying, you know what, it's not so bad, here we are with windchills making it harder and harder to talk, and it's only going to get much worse as the hours progress into tomorrow morning, and here in new york, we're faerg a lot better, right? negative 7 windchill. looking at double digits from the cold. earlier today, i caught up with people exploring the city. they say you know what, they're going to make the best of their time. they do admit this is colder than they expected. take a listen. >> it's been a nice winter so far. so it was about time for weather like this, i guess. >> if it's too cold tomorrow, are you going to readjust your plans or go out and explore.

>> we're going to do it. i want to make the most of my time while i'm here. >> reporter: making the most while you can. of course if you get too cold, you can always go inside, right, but the city is also, i should note making strides to make sure people who are homeless have a safe and warm place to go, and making sure the no hot water and heat requests are being tended to. the power grid, of course water main breaks happen when it's this cold, and making sure people don't misuse their space heaters or use those gas stoves to stay warm. of course these are all the things that you have to keep in mind when the weather gets this cold. fortunately, this is expected to be short lived, but of course if punxsutawney phil has anything to say about it, we could be seeing six more weeks of this. a lot of us hoping that meteorologist is wrong. >> a ground hog is not a meteorologist, and i want to note, we are not monsters, you go inside between live shots,

and you come out, and you, too, george are being safe, just confirm that for folks. >> reporter: absolutely. we are staying safe. we are taking breaks and making sure we stay hydrated too as part of that. >> i love that, thank you. let's go to our nonground hog weather expert, bill karins. there's stuff being bandied about, like the potential for a frost quake, what is that? >> let's get to the numbers, and then we'll get into the frost quakes or ice quakes, some people will call them. the area of concern that it could be generational, that's happening now in northern portions of new england. it's not going to be boston to hartford to new york city. it will be very cold, dangerous if you're outside without your skin protection, not like what they're dealing with in northern new england. things have improved dramatically in the great lakes, minneapolis, the windchill is 19. that's an improvement. the coldest air is now located in northern new england. i'll zoom in and show you all of our weather observation sites. the first that jumps out is

mount washington. three people living out there. weather observers, 6,500 feet, and negative 94 windchill. the wind is gusting to 120 miles per hour. that's pretty insane, and they actually said if they walked outside their building, they would take one minute for their skin to get frostbite. so yeah, they're not doing that. we're still, i mean, even in greenville, maine, negative 42, northern vermont, negative 44. it only takes four to five minutes for frostbite. they cancelled schools in this region, and they're tell everyone staying indoors. tomorrow morning, the winds will be dying off. it will be very cold. but the windchill action will be improving as we go throughout saturday morning, and by the time we get to sunday, things are back in new york city's mid-40s. northern vermont, mid- to upper 40s. a very cold outbreak. ice quakes, if the ground isn't frozen already, and you get water that soaks into it, and

then we get a harsh freeze like we have in new england, it hasn't been a hard winter, then when the ice expands on to the ground, it can cause little mini seismic events. it sounds like a shotgun or big boom, fireworks, it will be the ground expanding, maybe in the days ahead, tomorrow, we'll see those posted on social media for ice quakes. >> bill karins, thank you for that thorough breakdown, appreciate it. up next on the show, an nbc news exclusive, why more than half a million migrants who crossed the border were released inside the u.s. without a court date on the calendar. we'll take you inside ukraine with a look inside the desperate race to make child size bullet proof vests. we're live in kyiv where the russian invasion is not letting up. after the break. vaonsi is not l up after the break. for fast sore throat relief, try vicks vapocool drops with two times more menthol per drop*, and the powerful rush of vicks vapors for fast-acting relief you can feel. vicks vapocool drops. fast relief you can feel.

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think i might look into one myself. stay in the home and life you've built for years to come. call... to receive free highline comfort height toilet with purchase of kohler walk-in bath. and take advantage of our no payments until 2024 financing. the biden administration today announcing another $2 billion in military help for ukraine, which brings the u.s. commitment in all something like 29 billion since the russian invasion almost a year ago, and this new security package includes long range missiles, something kyiv has been requesting for months, it's the latest piece of advanced weaponry. foreign correspondent raf sanchez is joining us from kyiv. there has been some concern now over the last several days of a larger scale russian invasion. it looks like they are closing in at this point, russian troops on a strategic city in the east. walk us through that, and the

way that ukrainians are dealing with this continued real here. we mentioned before the break, the child-sized bullet proof vests that they're scrambling to make. >> yeah, hallie, child-sized bullet proof vests, it is a gut punch even to say ukraine is a country on high alert right now. we have been talking for weeks about the possibility of the new russian offensive and the feeling in kyiv is it could begin any day now. president zelenskyy last night meeting with his top military commanders for what he said was an especially important conversation, and today he has been warning both civilians and the military to be ready. ukraine sounding the alarm that russian forces are on the cusp of launching a new offensive, half a million fresh russian troops have been mobilized ukraine says, not all well trained but sheer numbers meant to overwhelm ukrainian defenses. in the eastern city of

kramatorsk, russian missiles day and night. the city's hospitals strange to treat the many wounded. i felt the pain and everything went dark, she says. president zelenskyy vowing ukraine will stay united whatever comes next. >> we have been standing against evil for almost a year. >> at a world war ii commemoration, president putin making veiled threats of nuclear conflict with the west. they don't understand that modern war with russia will be quite different for them. despite ukraine's pleas, western tanks still weeks from reaching the battlefield and no deal for now for nato to provide f-16 fighter jets. in bakhmut, police say fewer that 200 children are left in what was once a city of 70,000 people. they are used kid-sized bullet proof vests. they're made by the lviv defense

cluster, a team that usually produces armor for nato special forces now designing it for children, whose family was forced to flea their home in car kharkiv at the beginning of the war. >> this vest is for children 4 to 6 years old. >> a pocket for parents' phone numbers and a strap to carry kids to safety. my bullet proof vest, a little less colorful than angelicas. >> it feels good? good. a sliver of safety for kids growing up in war. and hallie, the lviv defense cluster has made about 550 of those kid-sized flap jackets so far. they cost about $700 each. they have been raising donations to make more of them. and the fear is as this russian offensive looms, there's going to be more and more demands, the fighting right now fearest in that eastern city of bakhmut, and president zelenskyy's

commander facing an agonizing choice right now, do they continue to hold on in that city or withdraw before russian forces surround them. >> raf sanchez live in kyiv with that important and gut punch piece of reporting. thank you very much. still ahead, our team getting an exclusive behind the scenes look at what one billionaire private astronaut is doing to bring more regular folks with him to space. we've got the details and more on the future of space travel ahead. ils and more on the future of space travel ahead. (vo) if you've had thyroid eye disease for years and things are a no-go because you keep seeing double, or...your bloodshot eyes have you seeing red,

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just without the lactose. tastes great in our iced coffees too. let's listen into secretary of state tony blinken, speaking about the chinese balloon in the united states. >> i'm postponing my travel this weekend to china. as you know, president biden and president xi agreed during their meetings in bali in november that i would travel to beijing to follow up on their discussions. we have been working across the u.s. government to prepare for a substantiative set of discussions on issues that matter to the american people and to people around the world. and we have been engaging for some time with our counter parts in beijing to prepare for these meetings. yesterday, the department of defense announced that we had detected and were tracking a high altitude surveillance balloon that remains over the continental united states. we continue to track and monitor the balloon closely. we're confident this is a

chinese surveillance balloon. once we detected the balloon, the u.s. government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive investigation. we communicated with the prc government directly through multiple channels about this issue. members of my team consulted with our partners and other agencies, and in congress. we also engaged our close allies and partners to inform them of the presence of the surveillance balloon in our airspace. we concluded that conditions were not conducive for a constructive visit at this time. my call today with director wong yi, the presence of the balloon in airspace is a violation of u.s. sovereignty and international law. that it's an irresponsible act and the prc's to take this action on the eve of my planned visit is detrimental to the substantiative discussions we were prepared to have. i told director wang that the

united states remains committed to diplomatic engagement with china and i plan to visit beijing when conditions allow. in the meantime, the united states will continue to maintain open lines of communication with china, include to go address this ongoing incident. indeed that's why we need direct and regular communications in the first place, and that's why it's critical that such lines remain open at all times, to help avoid miscalculation, and conflict. one final but important note, the world expects the united states and china to manage our relationship responsibly. and, indeed, addressing many of today's global challenges, challenges that affect the lives of our people and people around the world, demands that we find a way to work together as well. the united states will continue to act in a way that reflects that responsibility. we look to our prc counter parts to do the same. now, the foreign minister and i just signed an important agreement that will guide our country's cooperation on science and technology in the years

ahead. the agreement bills on one that we signed in 1992, which helped foster three decades of consequential collaboration. our universities conducted joint research on cancer and climate change. our governments have worked together to promote research and development on semiconductors, which power cars to smartphones. our businesses have partnered on life saving vaccines and treatments, like the collaboration between moderna and south korean biotechnology company samsung biologics to manufacture a safe and effective covid vaccine for the region. today's arrangement, today's agreement will expand the scope of that cooperation, both in areas that we've long worked together on like space, but also in emerging fields like biotechnology, quantum, artificial intelligence. scientific cooperation is just one of many areas where our nations are working together to the benefit of our populations. another is our shared security,

an area where we have enduring ties as our troops continue to train and conduct joint exercises side by side. as president biden has said, our alliance is the lynch pin of peace, stability and prosperity in the region. and is poised to grow stronger still with the launch of the republic of korea's new indo-pacific strategy this past december which reflects our shared interests and shared approaches to the region's most pressing challenges. today we reaffirmed our commitment to improving our ally defense against common threats, and defending the republic of korea using the full range of u.s. capabilities, including nuclear, and defense capabilities. secretary of defense austin met to boost our deterrence plan including deeper information sharing on north korean nuclear threats. we remain committed to the complete denuclearization of the korean peninsula. the foreign minister and i discussed the importance of maintaining peace and stability

in the taiwan strait. we're includesing our trilateral security cooperation with japan, which puts us on stronger footing, including the unlawful and reckless missile launches. we held a series of joint missile defrs and antisubmarine defenses this past fall, and deepening our collaboration on other projects to help with the impact of climate change, boosting inclusive economic prosperity, through the indo-pacific framework for prosperity, and the mineral security partnership, -- okay your partnership extends well beyond the endo pacific. since vladimir putin launched the war in ukraine our countries have stood together to impose sanctions and export controls as well as to support the people of ukraine as they defend their country. here too we're working in

concert with broad coalitions. earlier this week nato secretary-general stoltenberg traveled to the republic of korea and japan as part of his regular engagement with pacific partners demonstrating the growing synergy between our atlantic and pacific alliances. we applaud too $100 billion to humanitarian assistance to ukraine, american supplies to families, power generators to communities to replace the ones russia has deliberately bombed as it tries to deprive ukrainian civilians of heat, light, and water. this october we'll celebrate the 70th anniversary of the u.s. rok at the treaty signing seven years ago the south korean prime minister remarked he was sure, and i quote this written bond of solidarity would bring joy and encouragement to all friends of freedom. secretary of state dulz said the

alliance was firmly dedicated to peace. with the progress we've made today i'm confident we've taken another step towards a more secure and prosperous future to the benefit of the people of our countries -- >> we're going to pop back in once secretary blinken begins to take questions from reporters. but we're joined by nbc news foreign correspondent -- i'll start with you, janice, because this is the first time we've heard from secretary blinken on camera. we're going to pop back in once he starts taking questions from reporters. he said conditions were not conducive to a constructive visit but he did not shut the door for a visit down the road when conditions allow, he said. >> he did not shut the door because i believe there is the realization that there is an opportunity for diplomacy to try to reset u.s.-china ties before

they deteriorate even further. with a host of challenges facing the two countries trade, technology, taiwan, russia, the list goes on and on, the relationship is not at a stage where it can sustain a crisis over this balloon. what struck me, hallie, was the way the secretary was talking about how much discussion goes into planning this like the one that was supposed to get under way here this weekend. i've sensed that he was speaking to the fact that the behavior on the chinese side is certainly coming into discussion. the question is what's it going to take to get this visit back on track. nobody is talking about rescheduling yet, but it will be seen as an important period to try to restore those discussions. the chinese side did release a statement expressing regret and

saying that they did want to now talk with u.s. officials about resolving this unexpected situation but at no point has there been any details or allusion to when the chinese side could have alerted the u.s. to this balloon straying into their territory. so certainly there will be a lot to discuss in the days to come, but it's very unclear at this point when those discussions may restart. >> yeah. doesn't seem at this moment imminent, ambassador loch, to say the least. >> yeah, there's absolutely no way the meeting could have proceeded given this bone headed very visible move by the chinese. and i'm sure there certainly might be repercussions in china as to how this could have occurred. given the sensitivity and visibility of this balloon there's no way that the administration could have gone

forth. but nonetheless there are some very important issues that the united states and china must discuss and try to collaborate on whether it's climate change, whether it's stopping north korea from developing a nuclear weapon and fighting global terrorism. we have concerns about chinese policies, tariffs, a lack of enforcement of intellectual property but also their military objectives over taiwan and their growing presence in the pacific region. nonetheless the united states and china must find a way to cooperate and move forward on those areas of interest between the united states and china but also to the entire world. >> i'll come back to you, ambassador locke. let me dip into you over here because we have heard from the secretary of state. i think nothing altogether shocking about what we heard from secretary blinken so far,

we could surmise the reasons why the trip would be off, but talk about how this is playing from your neck of the woods. >> i was struck by the fact he was so open about the fact the surveillance balloon being over the u.s. was a direct contributor to this. generally in the diplomatic world they will dance around -- so i was surprised on his candor on the issue. from here we know more about the balloon than we did yesterday. number one it's still over the continental u.s. that's one of it reasons it's been causing so much concern, here at the pentagon and the white house and the administration in general, it's moving in an eastward direction right now. so we know wednesday it was over billings, montana. there have been sightings we've seen seeing and hearing about mainly on social media all day, but so far nothing is confirmed to be the balloon but we do know it's over the continental u.s. moving towards the east. that's the reason it's so concerning the fact it is still

hovering over the united states and it has been for several days. defense officials say they continue to track it minute to minute and they will do so, and reserve the right to take some action if they maintain it's a threat. again, i think the assessment on that continues to evolve every single minute, hallie. >> what does take some action mean, court, because we've -- some republicans want to shoot it down. they are concerned if this blows out of the sky it could be a danger to people on the ground. is that the only option? i don't know if there's an answer to that. >> that was my exact same question yesterday. is there some other method they could use that could disable the balloon, and they just don't want to talk about other capabilities they have. we do know they have abilities to obscure the picture it's

getting. the officials i'm speaking with are confident if the balloon drifts or maneuvers close to any strategic asset or looks like it may be able to gather information that may be problematic for the u.s., they'd have the ability to stop it from gathering it in the capacity, then ultimately the final option would be to shoot it down. there is a lot of concern about that. i think people forget this balloon is enormous, and it's at about 50,000 feet -- >> i was going to say because the fact people can see it from the ground or zoom in on it with their cameras, it's a ginormous thing. >> that's right. so when you think about it something that big there's probably helium involve and being afloat, if they were to use something to take it out and it to were to explode, the potential for the debris field would be very large. that's one of the concerns here. again, i think one of the reasons we're continuing to hear defense officials say they're not recommending shooting it down or taking it out because they don't believe its

surveillance capabilities are better than the average satellite the chinese have up anyway in lower orbit that's already gathering information every single day. so the pentagon keeps saying they're able to mitigate some of its surveillance capabilities both on the ground and in ways they won't talk to us about. >> court, i'll let you go. ambassador locke, let me askia this. if you were advising president biden in the white house right now, what would you be telling him to do? >> well, i think they need to explore every possibility of bringing that balloon down if nothing else for public consumption and a demonstration of strength. maybe they can take that balloon down after it is no longer a threat to populated areas. in the meantime, they've got to gaegs what they did in canceling the visit was the right call. this was a provocative act, a bone headed move by the chinese because as your correspondent indicated the chinese have high altitude sat sites. the united states uses high

altitude satellites to conduct surveillance over all of the countries around the world, china, north korea, russia, iraq -- excuse me, iran and other less friendly countries. so why are the chinese using a balloon makes absolutely no sense. but nonetheless they have. it's a crazy move and now they have to suffer the repercussions. >> thanks for being with us this afternoon. appreciate it. we're going to have a lot more coverage as we wait to see what secretary blinken says in response to the reporters in the room with him in the next couple of minutes. nicolle picks up our coverage with deadline right now. hi, everyone. it's 4:00 in new york, and it's friday. today we sit at the halfway point. two years have passed since the worst attack on the united states capitol in centuries, and two years remain before the next