Canada and the U.S. signed an agreement Monday designed to increase border security by allowing the RCMP and the U.S. Coast Guard to team up and ride in each others' vessels during border patrols.

Known as the Shiprider program, the new rules intend to improve security and eliminate jurisdictional grey areas in Canada-U.S. waterways. Without the new program, vessels must stop at the border and call upon the other country's officials for help.

The Shiprider program has been used as a pilot program over the past few years to catch smugglers and criminals on joint waterways.

Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan and his U.S. counterpart, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, signed the agreement Tuesday at a cargo facility at the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Detroit and Windsor, Ont.

Van Loan said the pact shouldn't be viewed as Americans encroaching on the jurisdiction of Canada because it's a joint effort between both countries.

And he stressed that security and trade between the two countries can be mutually beneficial.

"Because of the integration of our North American economies ... effective management of the border is essential to the health of both of our countries' economies," said Van Loan.

Talks between the two officials are set to continue this week in advance of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which comes into effect June 1. The initiative means Canadians will need to show their passports, NEXUS cards or enhanced driver's licences when entering the U.S.

Napolitano, who stirred controversy a few weeks ago when she suggested the 9-11 terrorists entered the U.S. through Canada, said the U.S. wants to partner with Ottawa to ensure the safety of the continent.

She said boosting security "doesn't mean closing ourselves off from other countries -- it means working together as neighbors and allies.

"We have to be able to share information ... and put more security at the border, which helps us keep track of what is going back and forth," she said.

Van Loan and Napolitano have agreed to meet twice every year, along with other high-level officials, to discuss border issues.

While Napolitano has since clarified her 9-11 comments and said the terrorists responsible for the attacks did not enter the U.S. through Canada, she has maintained that other terror suspects have crossed south over the border.

Napolitano has also criticized Canada for being too lax at the border, saying federal regulations did not go far enough.

Still, according to former diplomat Paul Frazer, Canadians shouldn't be alarmed by the prospect of foreign officers policing Canada's waters.

"It's not a one way kind of operation," he told CTV's Power Play from Washington on Tuesday.

Frazer stressed that the new plan is a quid-pro-quo deal for Canada.

"You will have Canadian authorities aboard American boats, going into American waters, and the reverse coming into Canadian waters."

With files from The Canadian Press