Freedom of Navigation
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The United States' Freedom of Navigation program has ensured that excessive territorial claims on the world's oceans and airspace are challenged, either by diplomatic protests and/or by interference. The United States has insisted that other nations obey the international law of the sea as stated by the UN Law of the Sea Convention. A significant number of nations (130) have signed on to the convention and there is a trend that's encouraging other countries not to claim excessive territory. Nonetheless, there are some coastal states that continue to make maritime claims inconsistent with international law, which, if unchallenged, would limit navigational freedoms vital to US security and essential to peaceful usage of the world's oceans.
On several occasions, US armed forces have conducted operations in areas claimed by other countries, such as operations in the Gulf of Sidra in the 1980s. Throughout the years US forces have been performing "Freedom of Navigation" operations in the Straits of Gibraltar, Strait of Hormuz, Malacca, the Indonesian Archipelago, the Black Sea, and occasionally the Canadian Arctic.
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