.. Anituai· Report ··to the 

President 

·and the 

Congress 

William S. Cohen 

Secretary of Defense 

2001 
APPENDIXH 

APPENDIX H 

Freedom of Navigation 

For over 20 years, the United States has reaffinned its long-standing policy of exercising and asserting its freedom 

of navigation and overflight rights on a worldwide basis. Such assertions by the U.S. preserve navigational 

freedoms for all nations, ensure open access to the world's oceans for international trade, and preserve global 

mobility of U.S. anned forces. Assertions communicate that the U.S. does not acquiescence to the excessive 

maritime claims of other nations and thereby prevent them from becoming accepted as the international nonn. 

Over the years, many nations have commented favorably upon the U.S.'s actions to maintain high vigilance of 

countries making maritime claims that exceed the provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and to 

ensure that coastal regimes inconsistent with freedom of navigation do not become accepted as the customary 

nonn. 

Challenges to other nations' excessive mantJme claims are conducted both through diplomatic protests and 

operational assertions by U.S. armed forces, under the Freedom of Navigation Program. Freedom of Navigation 

assertions are non-provocative and oftentimes have persuaded States to bring their practices into confonnity with 

the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. 

In FY 2000, U.S. anned forces conducted operational assertions described below, all without incident. Besides 

these specific actions, military vessels and aircraft exercised high seas freedoms and overflight rights by 

conducting transit passage, archipelagic sea lanes passage and innocent passage throughout the world, including 

dozens of routine passages though the Indonesian (22 transits) and Philippine (28 transits) archipelagos. Combined 

with robust and highly visible routine operations by U.S. anned forces on, over, and under the world's oceans, and 

strong U.S. support for the navigational provisions, of UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, Freedom of 

Navigation operations have continued to underscore the U.S. commitment to a stable legal regime for the world's 

oceans. So, too, does it operate as a safeguard for freedoms essential to national security and global stability, such 

as, strategic deterrence, forward presence, crisis response, and force reconstitution 

H-1 
APPENDIX H 

Freedom of Navigation 

t~ J& .• ·'? '" I* 'j%,·dii!' ,. 

Table H-1 ,. if' 

)$ FY 2000 FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION OPERATIONAL ASSERTIONS y • 

COUNTRY CHALLENGES 

Bangladesh Excessive straight baselines 

Burma Claimed security zone; excessive straight baselines; authority to regulate overflight in international airspace 

Cambodia Claimed security zone; excessive straight baselines 

China Taiwan's excessive straight baselines 

Ecuador 200 nautical mile territorial seas 

Egypt Prior permission for warships I nuclear powered vessels to enter territorial seas 

El Salvador 200 nautical mile territorial sea 

Iran Excessive straight baselines 

Libya Claimed Historical (internal) Waters (Gulf of Sidra) 

Malaysia Prior permission for military exercises in exclusive economic zone 

Philippines Excessive straight baselines 

Romania Prior permission for warships to transit territorial seas 

Syria 35 nautical mile territorial seas I prior permission for warships to enter territorial seas 

Venezuela Claimed security zone 

Vietnam Prior permission for warships to enter contiguous zone and territorial sea; requirement for warships to place wcapons in non-operative status prior to entering contiguous zone: excessive straight baselines 

H-2