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
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."
The 11 Arctic security cutters - new medium icebreakers to be used by the U.S. Coast Guard - are expected to cost about
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