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The Black Sea bumping incident of 12 February 1988 occurred when American cruiser USS ''Yorktown'' tried to exercise the claimed right of innocent passage through Soviet territorial waters in the Black Sea during the Cold War. The cruiser was bumped by the Soviet frigate ''Bezzavetny'' with the intention of pushing the ''Yorktown'' into international waters. The incident also involved the destroyer USS ''Caron'' which, while also claiming the innocent passage, was intentionally shouldered by a Soviet Mirka-class frigate ''SKR-6''. The ''Yorktown'' reported minor damage to hull, with no holing or risk of flooding. The ''Caron'' was not damaged.〔 At the time the Soviet Union recognized the right of innocent passage for warships in its territorial waters solely in designated sea lanes. The United States believed there was no legal basis for a coastal nation to limit warship transits to sea lanes only. Subsequently the U.S. Department of State found that unlike the English-language text of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Russian-language text of Article 22, paragraph 1 allowed the coastal state to regulate the right of innocent passage whenever necessary.〔 Following the incident, the Soviet Union expressed a commitment to resolve the issue of innocent passage in Soviet territorial waters.〔 == Background == In 1979, the United States launched an informal program to promote the "rights and freedoms of navigation and overflight guaranteed to all nations under international law".〔 The program was initiated because the U.S. government believed that many countries were beginning to assert jurisdictional boundaries that far exceeded traditional claims.〔 The program was specifically implemented because diplomatic protests seemed ineffective.〔 Thus the U.S. stance was that a state may lose its rights under international law if it does not maintain a consistent maritime policy (for instance, if a nation were to assert an excessive maritime claim and the U.S. avoided operating its ships and aircraft in the disputed area, the U.S. inaction would eventually contribute to the emergence of new customary international law).〔 In the 1980s U.S. warships were passing through the straits from the Mediterranean into the Black Sea two or three times a year to "show the flag" and to claim the right of innocent passage in the coastal states.〔 Aside from the right of free passage, the U.S. naval activity in the Black Sea served the purpose of upholding the U.S. rights under the 1936 Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits. According to a U.S. government official, "the Dardanelles and the Bosporus form an international waterway" under that convention and "if you don't periodically reaffirm your rights you find that they're hard to revive".〔 Meanwhile "The Rules of Navigation and Sojourn of Foreign Warships in the Territorial Waters and Internal Waters and Ports of the USSR", enacted by the Soviet Council of Ministers in 1983, acknowledged the right of innocent passage of foreign warships only in restricted areas of the Soviet territorial waters in the Baltic, Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan;〔 no sea lanes for innocent passage in the Black Sea were designated.〔 The Soviet vessels and aircraft were routinely dispatched to observe U.S. warships there.〔 In the 1980s, the Soviet Union viewed the U.S. presence in the Black Sea as an attempt to undermine improving Soviet–American relations.〔 After the 1986 incident in the Black Sea, involving USS ''Yorktown'' and USS ''Caron'', a meeting of the Soviet Council of Defence was held in the same year. At the meeting the Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Navy Vladimir Chernavin offered Mikhail Gorbachev, Defense Minister Sergey Sokolov, Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze and other senior officials to drive out intruding foreign warships from Soviet waters by bumping.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「1988 Black Sea bumping incident」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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