The North American Aerospace Defense Command, U.S. Northern Command and Mexico’s air force have jointly monitored a simulated illegal flight as part of the Amalgam Eagle 16 exercise, DoD News reported Wednesday.

Lisa Ferdinando writes the aircraft flew from the U.S. to Mexico and back while U.S. government officials tracked its movement over Texas then turned the monitoring over to Mexico when the aircraft entered Mexican airspace and vice versa.

“Mexico shares a border with the U.S., a very critical border, so it is important to us to keep up good relations with our partners to the south,” said Air Force Lt. Col. Chris Power, deputy division chief of NORAD operations support.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Transportation Security Administration and Federal Aviation Administration also participated in the event, Ferdinando reported.

Amalgam Eagle is an annual exercise that seeks to build on the information sharing and response cooperation between U.S. and Mexico.