Ice Pact: US, Canada and Finland sign polar icebreaker deal in challenge to China

A trilateral agreement announced at the Nato summit will see collaboration on building of polar icebreakers, in a bid to boost shipbuilding

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The US, Canada and Finland have announced a trilateral partnership for the building of polar icebreakers. It comes as China angles for a greater role in stewardship of the Arctic region. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 10:00pm, 11 Jul 2024Updated: 10:57pm, 11 Jul 2024

The US, Canada and Finland have announced an initiative to collaborate on the production of polar icebreakers, a move meant to jump-start an expansion of shipbuilding capacity to supply a global market increasingly dominated by China.

The trilateral “Ice Pact” will include information sharing on icebreakers – the workhorses of polar coastguard fleets – to create an interoperable product class across three countries, as well as joint efforts to attract buyers from among “allies and partners”, a senior official in US President Joe Biden’s administration told reporters.

The initiative was revealed during the ongoing Nato summit in Washington, and, according to the official, is “consistent with the message you’ve been hearing this week” at the bloc’s annual meeting. It is the second trilateral partnership on maritime technology and production announced by Biden, after he established Aukus with Britain and Australia in 2021.

“The Ice Pact will reinforce the message to Russia and China that the United States and its allies intend to … doggedly pursue collaboration on industrial policy to increase our competitive edge in strategic industries like shipbuilding, to build a world-class polar icebreaking fleet at scale.”

The pact is also meant “to project power into the polar regions to enforce international norms and treaties”, according to the official.

“Without this arrangement, we’d risk our adversaries developing an advantage in a specialised technology with vast geostrategic importance, which could also allow them to become the preferred supplier,” he said.