President Donald Trump announced a new agreement with Finland Thursday to build 11 new icebreakers, continuing his push to rebuild the Navy.
Alexander Stubb and Petteri Orpo, the president and prime minister of Finland, joined Trump at the White House to unveil the new cooperative partnership.
“What you’re doing is you’re going to be teaching us about the icebreaker business,” Trump told Stubb near the top of their meeting, before adding to reporters, “they sort of have almost a monopoly on icebreakers, if you think about it, nobody makes them like Finland.”
Stubb, in turn, remarked that “the first thing” Trump mentioned to him after winning the election last November was the icebreakers.
“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 for half the price in half the time that others have,” he continued. “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.”
The agreement itself dictates that seven of the icebreakers be constructed in the United States, with the first four being built in Finland. Before Trump entered office, the United States only had two icebreakers, with only one operational, in its entire Polar Fleet. The Trump administration recommissioned a ship as a working icebreaker earlier this year, marking the first new icebreaker added to the fleet in decades. For comparison, the Russian navy boasts 40 icebreakers, while the Chinese navy operates five of its own.
Trump has poured billions into revitalizing American shipbuilding. The president’s One Big Beautiful Bill funneled $25 billion into expanding the polar fleet specifically, and Trump has previously set the goal of commissioning 48 new icebreakers before the end of his term.
“We’re in the process of ordering 48 icebreakers and Canada wants to know if they could use them,” the president told reporters in March. “We have to have protection. We’re going to have to make a deal on that.”
TRUMP SAYS HE’LL WORK ON ‘PEACE’ WITH IRAN AFTER GAZA BREAKTHROUGH
You can watch Trump’s remarks in full below.
