A U.S. and a Canadian warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Saturday, the U.S. Navy said, in a rare joint mission in the sensitive waterway at a time of heightened tensions between Beijing and Washington over Taiwan.

Iran PressAsia: Under the "One China" policy, nearly all countries across the globe recognize Beijing's sovereignty over Chinese Taipei, including the US, which has no formal diplomatic ties with the territory but continues to support its anti-China stance and supply it with massive amounts of armaments.

The U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet said the guided-missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon and Canada's HMCS Montreal conducted a "routine" transit of the strait "through waters where high-seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law".

"Chung-Hoon and Montreal's bilateral transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the commitment of the United States and our allies and partners to a free and open Indo-Pacific," it said in a statement.

While U.S. warships transit the strait around once a month, it is unusual for them to do so with those of other U.S. allies.

The mission took place as the U.S. and Chinese defence chiefs were attending a major regional security summit in Singapore.

The last such publicly revealed U.S.-Canadian mission in the narrow strait took place in September.

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U.S. warship sails through Taiwan Strait

U.S., Canadian warships sail through Taiwan Strait, second in a year