After Months of Waiting, US Finally Begins Freedom of Navigation Patrols Near China's Man-Made Islands ( Source- The Diplomat / Author- Ankit Panda)
Source- The Diplomat Author- Ankit Panda USS Lassen, DDG-82 ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / United States Navy) Early Tuesday morning, the U.S. Navy confirmed that the USS Lassen, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, had completed the first in a series of planned freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs) in the South China Sea. The operation is the strongest assertion yet by the U.S. Navy that it rejects any maritime claims for Chinese features that were submerged at low-tide in their original, pre-land reclamation state. The FONOP does not, as some reporting has suggested, directly challenge or contest the sovereignty of specific maritime features in the South China Sea. The United States continues to take no position on the actual sovereignty of various disputed maritime features in the South China Sea. Based on the reports available at the time of this writing, the U.S. Navy has not specified the exact location or duration of the Lassen‘s passage