Driving U.S. warships near China's artificial archipelago is a routine operation and shouldn't be seen as provocative, the U.S. Navy's top officer said Thursday.
Taking questions from Japanese and international press during the Japan leg of his world tour, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson said the Navy sees freedom of navigation operations as part of upholding international law.
"The United States … is a global power and it has a global Navy," Richardson said. "And it should not be a surprise to anybody that we will exercise freedom of navigation through wherever international law will allow.
READ: Navy Times