By Steve Holland, Anne Kauranen and Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump and Finnish counterpart Alexander Stubb sealed an agreement on Thursday for the U.S. Coast Guard to acquire up to 11 icebreaker ships to bolster U.S. national security in the Arctic.
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.
The two leaders approved a memorandum of understanding on icebreaker cooperation that is intended to lay the foundation for commercial agreements between the U.S. Coast Guard and Finnish companies.
Under the agreement, Finland will build four "Arctic security cutters" at shipyards in Finland, and then the U.S. will leverage Finnish expertise to construct up to seven new ASCs in shipyards located in the United States.
"We're buying the finest icebreakers in the world, and Finland is known for making them," Trump said, sitting side by side with Stubb in the Oval Office.
Stubb called it a "huge strategic decision" by Trump "because we all know that the Arctic is important strategically."
Trump also said the United States would defend Finland, a NATO ally, if Russian President Vladimir Putin were to order an attack, but "I don't think he's going to do that."
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.
COAST GUARD'S FLEET UPGRADE
The 11 Arctic security cutters - new medium icebreakers to be used by the U.S. Coast Guard - are expected to cost about $6.1 billion, a White House official said.
Three of the ships will be built by international shipbuilder Davie in Galveston, Texas, and four will be built by Bollinger Shipyards in Houma, Louisiana, the official said.
Contacted by Reuters, Davie declined to comment and Bollinger Shipyards was not immediately available for comment.
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 polar fleet currently includes only two operational Arctic security cutters, the official said.
Trump and Stubb were also likely to discuss Russia's invasion of 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 DOMINATES GLOBAL ICEBREAKER INDUSTRY
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 Helsinki government said last year.
Finnish leaders have long advocated for icebreaker deals with the United States but such attempts have previously been rebuffed by strict interpretation of the Jones Act, U.S. legislation that prioritizes domestic businesses in the maritime industry.
However, a 2021 congressional report found that the Jones Act did not apply to icebreakers and that the president could authorize exceptions to other legal restrictions on construction of vessels in foreign shipyards.
(Reporting by Steve Holland, Anne Kauranen and Jeff Mason; editing by Clarence Fernandez, Mark Heinrich, Deepa Babington and Chizu Nomiyama )
