US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he met with Finland's President Alexander Stubb and discussed strengthening the bilateral partnership, including by purchasing icebreakers for the United States.
"President Stubb and I look forward to strengthening the partnership between the United States and Finland, and that includes the purchase and development of a large number of badly needed icebreakers for the US, delivering peace and international security for our countries, and the world," Trump said in a post on social media.
The two presidents met for breakfast, played golf and had lunch together. They also discussed foreign policy issues, including Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy met with Stubb in Helsinki last week.
Separately, the Finnish president's office said in a statement that Stubb's unannounced visit to Mar-a-Lago, Florida was informal in nature.
In November, Canada, Finland and the US administration of former President Joe Biden signed a deal called the "icebreaker collaboration effort" (ICE) to work, "together to develop world-class Arctic and polar icebreakers through the exchange of knowledge, information, and resources."
Before his visit, Stubb had said he hoped to play golf with Trump and that icebreaker diplomacy could help Finland maintain good relations with the US and Trump.
Finland shares the European Union's longest border with Russia. After Russia invaded Ukraine, the country made a foreign policy U-turn after decades of military non-alignment, deciding to join NATO together with Sweden.
Finland is a global leader in icebreaker construction, designing 80 per cent of the world’s icebreakers and building 60 per cent at its shipyards, according to the government. Much of the Russian icebreaking fleet is built in Finland.
Finnish icebreakers are cost-competitive due to very high levels of government assistance to the industry.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Ismail Shakil; editing by Michelle Nichols)