The US Navy has said it deliberately refrained from asking India’s consent for a ‘freedom of navigation’ patrol near its Lakshadweep archipelago this week because New Delhi’s demands to do so contravene international law.
An Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, the USS John Paul Jones, “asserted navigational rights and freedoms approximately 130 nautical miles (240 km) west of the Lakshadweep Islands, inside India’s exclusive economic zone [EEZ], without requesting India’s prior consent, consistent with international law,” the US 7th Fleet announced in a statement on Wednesday.
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