President Joe Biden sought to ease public concerns about a spate of aerial objects over the U.S. in recent weeks, saying he intends to speak with President Xi Jinping of China to defuse tensions over the military downing of an alleged Chinese spy balloon.

Biden said Thursday that intelligence agencies have no indication three other downed objects were foreign surveillance aircraft but also promised to create new parameters designed to secure U.S. airspace. He also vowed to “responsibly manage” competition with China “so that it doesn’t veer into conflict.”

“We’re not looking for a new Cold War, but I make no apologies, and we will compete,” Biden said in remarks at the White House, his first extended effort to publicly address the uproar caused by the episodes.

Biden didn’t say when he plans to speak to Xi.

BIPARTISAN PRESSURE

Biden has faced bipartisan pressure to provide Americans with more information about the alleged Chinese spy balloon downed by a U.S. fighter jet on Feb. 4 after crossing the U.S. mainland, as well as three other unidentified objects that were shot out of the skies over Alaska, Canada and Lake Huron in the following days.

The president said those objects weren’t related to the balloon incident and were likely tied to commercial or research ventures. But he added that the administration hasn’t determined definitively what they are because the debris hasn’t yet been recovered. He said he acted “out of an abundance of caution” in downing the other mystery objects.

“We don’t have any evidence that there has been a sudden increase in number of objects in the sky,” Biden said. Rather, he said the U.S. military and civil aviation authorities have spotted more objects after making radar systems more sensitive following the suspected Chinese balloon’s cross-country trip.

Biden sought to defend his handling of the balloon incident in response to Republicans who said he was too slow to act as well as the Chinese government, which sanctioned U.S. defense contractors. He said the downing of the balloon had sent “a clear message” that violations of U.S. sovereignty are “unacceptable.”

“I hope we are going to get to the bottom of this, but I make no apologies for taking down that balloon,” Biden said.

New parameters Biden directed the government to create are intended to establish a better inventory of unmanned airborne objects and implement measures to better detect man-made objects in U.S. airspace. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will also work with other nations to establish global norms on launching those devices and securing high-altitude spaces.

Biden’s address came before he leaves the country for a Feb. 20 trip to Poland around the one-year mark of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The White House has faced calls from Republicans and Democrats in Congress to provide more information to lawmakers and the public. The administration has provided closed-door briefings to members on Capitol Hill, but lawmakers have said the information should be public and that officials should provide more of it. Much of what Biden said on Thursday repeated details shared by other U.S. officials in recent days.

DEFUSING TENSIONS

The U.S. has sought to dial back concern about the spy balloon saying that it had only limited benefit to surveillance efforts. In a sign that both sides are eager to turn the page, Blinken is said to be weighing a meeting with China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference beginning Friday.

Still, tensions between the world’s two largest economies remain high. On Thursday, in a largely symbolic gesture, Beijing imposed fines and sanctions against two U.S. defense companies, Lockheed Martin Corp. and a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies Corp., due to their participation in arms sales to Taiwan, China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.

The White House said the spy balloon episode revealed a wide-ranging espionage program the Chinese government used to target 40 countries worldwide. U.S. officials have briefed other nations that were overflown by such spy balloons in the past.

The U.S. is now working to recover the payload of the Chinese craft as well as the other objects. Significant amounts of equipment have been recovered, but weather conditions have made the ongoing work difficult — and have prevented personnel from collecting debris from the three other objects that fell in remote locations.