On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump and Finnish President Alexander Stubb approved an agreement for the U.S. Coast Guard to purchase up to 11 icebreaker vessels aimed at enhancing 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.

‘Finest Icebreakers’

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 $6.1 billion, a White House official said.

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.”

Stubb also played down the short-term Russian risk to Finland, saying in an interview Moscow was not an “imminent military threat.”

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.

At the moment, Russia itself has around 40 icebreakers, many times the nearest country, putting the major NATO nemesis at a potentially significant advantage in the far north.

“I think people are waking up to the reality that we need to strengthen our deterrence so that a conflict (with Russia) will not be possible,” Stubb said in an interview following his visit with Trump.

Investment In Maritime Industry

Three of the 11 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.

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.

Stubb Plays Intermediary

Trump and Stubb, who at times serves as an intermediary between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, were also set to discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Asked if he has transmitted any messages from his visit with Zelenskyy last month to Trump, Stubb said that his government “always” communicates “back and forth” between the men, while declining to discuss details.

Trump, who spent the first several months of his term trying to rewarm his relationship with Putin, has in recent weeks hardened his rhetoric toward the Kremlin.

While Trump is considering a number of moves to up the pressure on Moscow to end its invasion of Ukraine, most of Ukraine and Europe’s most ambitious asks – such as new sanctions and tariffs – have so far gone unheeded.

“Obviously we have seen that he has moved with Russia from carrot to stick,” Stubb said. “And then we see what he decides himself. He’s a very independent man on these types of issues.”

The last time Stubb was in Washington, during an August visit with several other European leaders, Trump and NATO allies said they intended to put together a comprehensive plan for security guarantees for a post-war Ukraine.

Stubb implied political buy-in was still needed to get that plan in place.

“I think that we have made advances,” Stubb said. “Especially on the military side, they’re pretty much a done deal. And then we have to decide on how we do them on the political side.”

‘People Need To Be More Finnish’

Stubb broadly played down concerns about a possible movement of U.S. troops out of Europe as part of an ongoing U.S. force posture review, arguing Trump remains committed to Europe. He added that he does not see Russia – which shares a 830-mile border with the Nordic nation – as an “imminent military threat” to Finland.

In June, the chief of Germany’s foreign intelligence service said Germany had obtained intelligence indicating Russia was determined to extend its confrontation with Europe beyond the borders of Ukraine, and that Kyiv was “only a step on the journey westward.”

“To be honest, I think people need to be a little bit more Finnish, which means be calm, cool, collected, take a sauna or take an ice bath,” Stubb said asked about assessments that Russia could invade a NATO country in the coming years. “Prepare.”

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.

(With inputs from Reuters)