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President Trump met with Finnish President Alexander Stubb Thursday at the White House to sign off on an agreement for the U.S. Coast Guard to purchase up to four icebreaker ships from Finnish shipyards.
The ships are crucial for the U.S. strategic posture toward Russia in the Arctic Ocean.
“We only have one ice breaker in all of the millions and millions of acres, we only have one ice breaker. And other countries have more than we do,” Mr. Trump said. “And we’re buying the finest ice breakers in the world, and Finland is known for making them.”
Mr. Trump said Finland’s shipbuilders “have almost a monopoly on ice breakers.”
Indeed, Mr. Stubbs noted that Finland builds 60% of the world’s icebreakers and designs 80% of icebreakers built throughout the world.
“We’ve been building them for over 100 years. And speaking of price and time, I think we’re the country that can provide them at half the price and half the time that others have it,” he said. “And I think it’s a huge strategic decision by the president as well, because we all know that the Arctic is important strategically, militarily and in terms of the economy as well.”
He added, “Russia has 40, and you need to start ramping this up. And this is an indication that we’re going to do it and we’re going to do it together.”
Mr. Trump and Mr. Stubb previously met shortly after Mr. Trump took office in January and played golf together at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, and business between the two countries was discussed.
The Coast Guard is responsible for the U.S. military’s icebreaker operations and is in dire need of additional vessels to compete with adversaries like Russia and China in the High North.
Its newest ice breaker, USCGC Storis, is a former supply and towing vessel for the oil industry. The acquisition expands the current Coast Guard fleet of Arctic icebreakers to three.
The Storis recently returned to its home port in Seattle after completing a 112-day inaugural patrol in the Arctic.
Mr. Trump has long wanted 40 new icebreakers to boost U.S. national security in the Arctic and push back on the growing threat of China and Russia in the region.
Three of the ships are expected to be made by Davie in Galveston, Texas, and four will be built by Bollinger Shipyards in Houma, Louisiana, a White House official said.
The goal is for the first ice breaker to be delivered by 2028
The deals on the ice breakers are estimated to bring in billions of dollars of new investment in the U.S. maritime industrial base and result in thousands of new American trades jobs, said the official.
The Coast Guard’s operational polar fleet has just two operational Arctic security cutters.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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