By Steve Holland and Anne Kauranen
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump and Finnish counterpart Alexander Stubb will meet on Thursday at the White House, planning to approve a pact for the U.S. Coast Guard to buy up to four icebreaker ships from Finnish shipyards.
Trump and Stubb have established friendly ties since Trump regained power in January, and the two met in March at the president’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida and played a round of golf.
Trump has consistently called for the United States to acquire as many as 40 new icebreakers to enhance U.S. national security in the Arctic and counter the growing influence of China and Russia.
A White House official said Trump would sign a memorandum of understanding with Finland to build four “Arctic security cutters” at shipyards in Finland, calling the plan a national security necessity to permit foreign construction.
“We will then leverage Finnish expertise to construct up to seven new ASCs in shipyards located in the United States,” the official said.
The 11 Arctic security cutters, a new medium icebreaker to be used by the U.S. Coast Guard, are expected to cost about $6.1 billion, the official said.
Three of the ships will be built by Davie in Galveston, Texas, and four will be built by Bollinger Shipyards in Houma, Louisiana, the official said.
The aim is for the first icebreaker to be delivered by 2028. The official said the deals would result in billions of dollars of new investment in the U.S. maritime industrial base and add thousands of skilled trades jobs for Americans.
The Coast Guard’s operational polar fleet currently includes only two operational Arctic security cutters, the official said.
Trump and Stubb are also likely to discuss Russia’s war against Ukraine. Trump, after trying to use his personal relationship to coax Russian President Vladimir Putin into a ceasefire, has said he is disappointed in Putin and now wants to help Ukraine more.
Finland is the world’s leading producer of icebreakers, with about 80% of existing ships designed by its companies, and about 60% of them built at its shipyards, the Finnish government said last year.
Finnish leaders have long advocated for icebreaker deals with the United States but such attempts have previously been rebuffed by the Jones Act, U.S. legislation that prioritizes domestic businesses in the maritime industry.
(Reporting by Steve Holland and Anne Kauranen; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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