(VOVworld) - The United States is "deeply concerned" about the extent of land reclamation and the prospect of further militarization in the East Sea, which could lead to a greater "risk of miscalculation or conflict", said U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter. In his speech on Saturday at a defense forum at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, Carter said the United States will continue to conduct freedom of navigation operations in the East Sea. Carter's comments came after a U.S. guided-missile destroyer, the USS Lassen, in late October patrolled around one of China's illegal man-made islands in the Spratly archipelago.