Finnish Newspaper: ICE Pact MOU Expected Next Week
An article out today in the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat provides some new information.
Back in July, President Biden, President Stubb, and Prime Minister Trudeau announced the ICE (Icebreaker Collaboration Effort) Pact between the USA, Finland, and Canada. If you’re not familiar with the details, I wrote an initial article about it back in July and provided an update based on new information in September. Links here for your convenience:
Now on to today’s news:
Finnish Newspaper: ICE Pact MOU Expected Next Week
According to an article in today’s edition of the Finnish Newspaper Helsingin Sanomat (original in Finnish)1:
Next week, Finland, the United States and Canada will sign a memorandum of understanding concerning the production of Arctic icebreakers. The signatory on behalf of Finland is Minister of Economic Affairs Wille Rydman (PS).
What will the MOU say? Again, to Helsingin Sanomat:
According to HS's information, the memorandum of understanding to be signed next week does not yet contain agreements on concrete projects to be implemented. Instead, it sets out the principles of cooperation in more detail.
Cooperation areas include the design and construction of icebreakers, training cooperation, and research and product development. Other Western countries are also invited to join the project.
Finland still hopes to get new orders for its shipyards:
With the agreement, Finland specifically aims to build icebreakers in Finland.
Finland has expertise in this field. According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, Finnish companies have designed about 80 per cent of the world's icebreakers, and about 60 per cent of them have been built in Finnish shipyards.
However, there is no certainty that orders will come as a result of the new cooperation. The agreement to be signed next week does not guarantee that.
How will the recent U.S. Presidential Election affect this goal?
A change of administration in the United States may affect the process, such as its schedules. However, the administration of Donald Trump, who will become president, has been believed to be fundamentally positive about cooperation.
Thoughts:
I don’t expect too much out of the Memorandum of Understanding, as it is a government document, but the entities involved are in the private sector and can already cooperate if they determine such cooperation to be in their interests. And according to this report, it will only provide more detail concerning the principles of cooperation. This seems a step back from the earlier expectation of what the MOU would contain, with more concrete details pushed back into 2025. Perhaps some aspects of the MOU will make it easier for Bollinger to get assistance with the Polar Security Cutter program, but I will believe that when I see it.
The aspects of cross-border cooperation that have the best chance of actually helping the U.S. Coast Guard to fill its gap in icebreaking capability- such as the possibility of building an icebreaker in a foreign shipyard- will remain off the table for now because they are too politically challenging for the U.S. Government.
That may change when President Trump returns to office, based on the cooperation that he pursued with Finland during his first term. I’ll be writing more about that shortly.
That’s it for today. There will be more coming next week regarding how the return of President Trump might affect icebreaker procurement, on the ICE Pact MOU, and about the journey of Peter ‘Pinto’ Matyola to the German front in October and November of 1944.
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Until next time.
All the Best,
PGR
Translations done in Microsoft Edge and adjusted/improved by the author when required.