“Chung-Hoon and Montreal’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the combined U.S.-Canadian commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the statement said. “The U.S. military flies, sails, and operates safely and responsibly anywhere international law allows.”

At the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore this weekend, China’s defense minister, Gen. Li Shangfu, said Beijing “must prevent attempts that try to use those freedom of navigation [patrols], that innocent passage, to exercise hegemony of navigation.”

The encounter comes at a tense time in U.S.-China relations following the February shootdown of a Chinese spy balloon after it transited the U.S. At the Shangri-La Dialogue, the defense minister refused to meet with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, although the two did briefly shake hands.