President-elect Donald Trump tweeted Saturday evening that China should be told to “keep” the US Navy underwater drone it recently seized from South China Sea waters and agreed to return.
“We should tell China that we don’t want the drone they stole back.- let them keep it!” he tweeted.
Earlier on Saturday, Trump had called the capture — an incident that added to existing tensions between the US and China — an “unprecedented” act.
You've reached your daily free article limit.
Subscribe and support our veteran writing staff to continue reading.
President-elect Donald Trump tweeted Saturday evening that China should be told to “keep” the US Navy underwater drone it recently seized from South China Sea waters and agreed to return.
“We should tell China that we don’t want the drone they stole back.- let them keep it!” he tweeted.
Earlier on Saturday, Trump had called the capture — an incident that added to existing tensions between the US and China — an “unprecedented” act.
“China steals United States Navy research drone in international waters — rips it out of the water and takes it to China in an unprecedented act,” he tweeted, after deleting a widely mocked version of the tweet that used the misspelling “unpresidented.”
The drone, deployed by a US oceanographic vessel in international waters in the South China Sea, was conducting a military survey roughly 50 nautical miles northwest of the Philippines before it was seized by a Chinese warship and removed from the water on Thursday.
“It’s a sovereign immune vessel, clearly marked in English not to be removed from the water — that it was US property,” a US official told Reuters on Friday.
Chinese officials agreed to return the vessel after negotiating with the US, the Pentagon said Saturday.
Read the whole story from Business Insider.
Should the US Air Force Buy 250 B-21 Stealth Bombers?
Inside Delta Force: America’s Most Elite Special Mission Unit
Russia Fires Intercontinental Ballistic Missile at Ukraine in Historic First
SOFREP Interviews Chelsea Walsh: The Nurse Who Reported Red Flags About Trump’s Would Be Assassin
Happy Birthday Delta Force!
Join SOFREP for insider access and analysis.
TRY 14 DAYS FREEAlready a subscriber? Log In
COMMENTS
You must become a subscriber or login to view or post comments on this article.