


By Karl de Vries CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- China has agreed to return the US underwater drone that it seized in international waters earlier this week, the Pentagon said Saturday.



Earlier Saturday, China's defense ministry said Chinese authorities had decided to return it, but criticized the US for having "hyped up" the issue. President-elect Donald Trump weighed in on the incident, calling China's action "unprecedented."

"Upon confirming that the device was a US underwater drone, the Chinese side decided to transfer it to the US side in an appropriate manner," Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Sr. Col. Yang Yujun said. "China and the United States have been communicating about this process. It is inappropriate -- and unhelpful for a resolution -- that the US has unilaterally hyped up the issue. We express our regret over that."


A message left with the State Department was not returned Saturday.

Saturday morning, Trump tweeted, "China steals United States Navy research drone in international waters - rips it out of water and takes it to China in unprecedented act."

Trump initially tweeted that it was an "unpresidented" act, leading him to delete the message and retweet it with the correct spelling.

Incident in international waters






Cook earlier in the week said said China had "unlawfully seized" the drone, calling for its immediate return.

Although it's unclear what the motivation was for the Chinese, the seizing of the drone comes on the heels of other provocative incidents that have happened since Trump received a congratulatory call from Taiwan's President, a violation of the US's agreement with China's "One China policy." China publicly voiced its disapproval of that incident and contacted the White House at the time.

CNN's Steve Jiang, Barbara Starr, Ryan Browne and Matt Rivers contributed to this report.


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