American ships, USS Chung-Hoon, and Canadian ships, HMCS Montreal, crossed the Taiwan Strait on Saturday, which has become a geopolitical powder keg in recent years, the US Navy and Canadian Army announced.

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“The passage of the Chung Moon River and Montreal across the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the commitment of the United States and its allies and partners to a free and open Indo-Pacific region,” said May 7^e American fleet.

The United States and Canada are “partners committed to regional peace and security,” the Canadian military tweeted.

American ships regularly cross the Taiwan Strait, but rarely accompanied by an Allied ship. The last joint American-Canadian passage was in September.

The passage comes as U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu first briefly greeted each other at the opening dinner of the Shangri-La Defense Dialogue Conference in Singapore.

Three Chinese ships, including the aircraft carrier Shandong, crossed the Taiwan Strait in late May. While the presence of Chinese warships in the Taipei Taiwan Strait is constantly monitored and reported almost daily, that of the aircraft carrier Shandong is unusual.

Since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, China has viewed Taiwan as a province that has not yet been successfully reunited with the rest of its territory.

Relations between Beijing and Taipei, which were at their lowest since Xi Jinping took power more than a decade ago, have continued to deteriorate in recent years, and China has stepped up military incursions around the island.