TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwanese soldiers participated in this year’s Northern Strike military exercise in Michigan.

A top Michigan National Guard official confirmed at a briefing earlier this month that more than 500 Taiwanese troops joined the annual exercise, which ran from Aug. 2 to Aug. 16, Stars and Stripes reported.

Taiwan has been participating in the exercise since at least 2021, according to the Michigan National Guard.

This year’s exercise simulated a contingency in the Indo-Pacific for the first time since its inception, emphasizing the Pentagon’s regional concerns.

Brigadier General Ravi Wagh, assistant to the adjutant general-Army for the Michigan National Guard, said that Northern Strike will continue to focus on an Indo-Pacific conflict. “As we’ve seen the national priority shift … we need to align and plan for that region,” Wagh said.

Northern Strike’s land exercise director, Colonel Todd Fitzpatrick, said the state’s geography is perfectly suitable for troops to get accustomed to Indo-Pacific environments. “We’re right smack in the middle of the Great Lakes, so we can replicate that island environment.”