United States President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday said China can keep the drone its navy seized in the South China Sea the previous day, after the country agreed to return the underwater research vessel. “We should tell China that we don’t want the drone they stole back.– let them keep it!” Trump said on Twitter.

He had earlier accused China of stealing Washington’s drone, after his comments last week that there was no point in continuing with the “One China” policy if Beijing did not make trade concessions.

China had seized the unmanned underwater vehicle that was deployed by oceanographic vessel USNS Bowditch northwest of Subic Bay, off the coast of the Philippines. Following the seizure, the US had demanded the immediate release and return of the vessel and also lodged a formal complaint against the incident through diplomatic channels. Beijing, however, had accused Washington of “hyping up” the incident, Reuters reported.

Pentagon spokesperson Peter Cook on Saturday said, “We have secured an understanding that the Chinese will return the UUV to the United States.” The Chinese Defence Ministry issued a statement saying the drone was seized to prevent it from “posing a danger to the safe navigation of passing ships and personnel”, reported Reuters. “During this process, the US side’s unilateral and open hyping up is inappropriate, and is not beneficial to the smooth resolution of this issue. We express regret at this,” they said.

China also accused the US of sending ships to the region to conduct military surveillance, AP reported. “China is resolutely poised to this and requests the US to stop such activities,” the government said in the statement.