Sailors of the Royal Canadian Navy celebrated Canada Day in Pearl Harbor on Friday after sailing across the Pacific.

The Canadian frigates HMCS Vancouver and HMCS Winnipeg set off from their home port of Esquimalt on June 14 and sailed with a flotilla of ships from the U.S., Chilean and Peruvian navies bound for Hawaii to take part in the biennial Rim of the Pacific exercise, the world’s largest recurring naval war game.

Along the way, the four navies trained together.

“Because we’re here so early, we were actually able to celebrate our national holiday, Canada Day, here in port with the rest of the ships,” said Lt. Cmdr. James Ahlstrom, the Winnipeg’s executive officer. “(We’re) really excited to not only spend our national holiday here, but share it with a host of ships and like-minded nations.”

Moored across the pier from the Winnipeg and Vancouver, the Chilean navy frigate Almirante Lynch flew a Canadian flag on its mast in recognition of the holiday.

“I’m very happy that Chile here is actually flying our national flag in solidarity,” said Ahlstrom. “So it’s great to see the turnout and participation.”

Canada is a key player in RIMPAC, having been one of the five original participants during the first exercise in 1971.

“We’ve been here for as long as I’ve been alive,” said Royal Canadian Navy Rear Adm. Christopher Robinson, who arrived in Hawaii on the Winnipeg and serves as deputy commander of Combined Task Force RIMPAC for the exercise.

During this iteration of RIMPAC, the Canadians will focus on anti-submarine warfare. Both Halifax-class frigates have a Sikorsky CH-148 Cyclone helicopter on board that will be equipped with torpedoes as they hunt for simulated enemies.

For the exercise the Canadians have brought several small remote-controlled boats to serve as targets at sea.

Canada is one of 26 participating members in RIMPAC 2022. When asked what the Canadian military’s greatest strength is that it brings to the exercise, Robinson replied that the nation’s forces are uniquely skilled at working collaboratively and bringing others together.

During RIMPAC operations, service members from the various navies have to learn to work not only through cultural and language barriers, but also with different equipment and organizational structures.

“If you look around the harbor, you will see that, you know, every nation has slightly different fits, slightly different training mechanisms, and kind of making that work is something that we’re really good at,” said Robinson.

It’s important for navies to learn to work through those differences and get acquainted with one another before they are required to deploy together in a real-world geopolitical crisis or natural disaster.

“It’s actually more difficult to work with people that you don’t know,” he said.

The exercise takes place with a backdrop of simmering tensions in the Pacific. In particular, the U.S. Pacific Fleet, which is hosting the exercise, has its eyes on China.

Several of China’s neighbors, including RIMPAC participants, have been embroiled in territorial disputes with China.

Beijing considers almost the entire South China Sea to be its exclusive territory within a maritime border called the “Nine-Dash Line.” The Philippines issued a legal challenge, and in 2016 an international court ruled that most of Beijing’s claims had no legal basis.

But the Chinese military has dug in, building bases on disputed islands and atolls and intimidating ships from neighboring countries. Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy has stepped up “freedom of navigation” operations around the region. The standoff has increasingly militarized a critical waterway through which at least a third of all global trade travels.

When Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took office in 2015, relations between Canada and China seemed to be on the upswing, with strong trade ties and warming relations. But in recent years the relationship has soured significantly.

In particular, during an October 2020 news conference, the Chinese ambassador to Canada, Cong Peiwu, warned Canada not to grant asylum to activists from Hong Kong as police cracked down on those protesting a controversial “national security” law that established stringent new restrictions on speech and activism.

Cong also seemingly made a veiled threat of retaliation against Canadian citizens in Hong Kong.

“We strongly urge the Canadian side not to grant so-called political asylum to those violent criminals in Hong Kong, because it is interference in China’s domestic affairs, and certainly it will embolden those violent criminals,” Cong said. “If the Canadian side really cares about the stability and prosperity in Hong Kong, and really cares about the good health and safety of those 300,000 Canadian passport holders in Hong Kong, and a large number of Canadian companies operating in Hong Kong, you should support those efforts to fight violent crimes.”

When reporters asked whether his words were a threat, Cong replied, “That is your interpretation.”

Lately, Canada has been reinvesting in alliances and partnerships in the region. In June, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Melanie Joly announced the establishment of the Indo-Pacific Advisory Committee to seek input as the country crafts a new regional strategy.

“We’re a Pacific nation, and we’re strongly committed to a rules-based order,” said Robinson. “We’re a trading nation; the vast majority of everything that is consumed in Canada arrives by ship — we figure it’s about three-quarters of the stuff is shipped by ship — and we believe in the prosperity that is brought by that kind of rules-based order.”

For the crews of the Winnipeg and Vancouver, RIMPAC is just the start of what will be a six-month deployment. When the exercise wraps up Aug. 4, the two frigates will venture farther west in support of the Canadian military’s Operation Projection.