Austin: Great powers need to be an example of transparency

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said at a press conference after a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu that great powers should be examples of transparency and openness in communications.

“As I have repeatedly said, it is important for great powers to be models of transparency and communication”– he said.

The head of the Pentagon informed that he had phoned Shoigu and added that the United States would fly wherever permitted by international law.

Western media, and then representatives of the State Department and the White House, without giving details, on March 14 announced an incident with a Russian fighter jet and an American UAV in the sky over the Black Sea. The US military hastened to lay the blame for the downing of the drone on Russia without evidence.

The Russian Defense Ministry noted that an American MQ-9 drone flying towards the Russian border in the Crimean region collided with water itself, the Aerospace Forces fighters did not come into contact with it.

The defense department stressed that the transponder was turned off on the American drone. Also, the aircraft violated the borders of the area of ​​the temporary regime for the use of airspace, established for the purpose of conducting a special operation, communicated to all users of international airspace and published in accordance with international standards.