President Biden said that early indications show the three objects downed over North American airspace in the past week were privately-owned balloons and were not conducting surveillance, BBC reported.

''It follows White House spokesman John Kirby's comments on Tuesday that the objects were likely “tied to some commercial or benign purpose".

The trio of objects were much smaller than the alleged Chinese spy balloon, but officials said they were flying at an altitude that posed a threat to commercial airlines as a justification for shooting them down.''

Biden also said, ''I believe the last thing xi wants is to fundamentally rip the relationship with the US and with me,'' in an NBC news interview.''