China agrees to turn over U.S. drone

Pentagon says seizure of UUV was ‘unlawful’

BEIJING — The Pentagon said Saturday that Beijing had agreed to return an underwater drone seized by China in international waters, an indication the two countries were moving to resolve an incident that risked sharpening tensions in the run-up to the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.

“Through direct engagement with Chinese authorities, we have secured an understanding that the Chinese will return the UUV to the United States,” said Peter Cook, Pentagon press secretary, using initials to refer to the Navy’s unmanned underwater vehicle.

Cook said the deal had been reached after the United States “registered our objection to China’s unlawful seizure of a U.S. unmanned underwater vehicle operating in international waters in the South China Sea.”

The Chinese authorities told U.S. officials that they planned to return the drone, but the two sides were still working out where, when and precisely how the device would be handed back, said two Defense Department officials, both of whom would talk about the negotiations with China only on the condition of anonymity. One of the officials said the Pentagon expected the matter to be resolved in the coming days without further acrimony.

In a statement Saturday, the Chinese Defense Ministry said it was in talks with the United States but criticized Washington for what it called an “inappropriate” exaggeration of the dispute. The U.S. reaction, it said, is “not conducive to solving the problem smoothly.”

Trump entered the fray Saturday, accusing China on Twitter of acting improperly.

The overseas edition of The People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s newspaper, said on its social media account Saturday night that the Chinese capture of the drone was legal because rules about drone activities had not been clearly written.

The seizure came after Trump angered Beijing by speaking by phone to the leader of Taiwan, and after he criticized China for building military bastions in the South China Sea. U.S. officials were trying to determine whether the seizure was a response to Trump or whether it was an escalatory step in China’s plan to try to push the U.S. Navy out of the South China Sea.