Top government officials from Canada, Finland and the United States met in Washington, D.C., in November 2025 to discuss further collaboration to build icebreakers and bolster the U.S. and NATO defense posture in the Arctic, a region that is increasingly contested by the Chinese Communist Party and Russia. U.S. Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem, Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. Kristen Hillman and Finnish Minister of Economic Affairs Sakari Puisto signed a joint statement of intent, which is the latest development in the Icebreaker Collaboration Effort (ICE), a 2024 trilateral agreement among the three nations.
“Today, we marked a major milestone in the race to secure the Arctic against our adversaries,” Noem said. “ICE Pact, the historic trilateral partnership between the United States, Canada and Finland, will power our economies with good jobs, strengthen our collective Arctic defense and bring us one step closer to rebuilding our icebreaker fleets.”
The agreement “aims to further enhance industrial collaboration across icebreaker construction, launch workforce development initiatives, further align cooperation in the region, and advance joining research frameworks,” according to the High North News, a Norwegian newspaper.
U.S. President Donald J. Trump and Finnish President Alexander Stubb revealed in October plans for 11 new Arctic security cutters, with the first five ships to be delivered by the end of 2028. The U.S. ordered four icebreakers from Finnish shipyards. Rauma Marine Constructions and Helsinki Shipyard each will build two medium-sized Arctic security cutters. The other seven vessels will be constructed in the U.S. at Bollinger Shipyards in Houma, Louisiana, and Davie Shipbuilding in Galveston, Texas, according to the newspaper.
The allies also discussed increased trilateral cooperation on advanced navigation, remote sensing and environmental monitoring in the Arctic. “Today is a major milestone in the race to secure the Arctic for all of our countries. The Arctic is the world’s last, most wild frontier, and our adversaries are racing to claim its strategic position and its natural resources for their own,” Noem said.
Melting polar ice caps have created new shipping lanes in the once icebound region, but icebreakers still are necessary to maintain security and domain awareness as ice remains thick enough most of the year to prevent effective force deployments.
Canada has the second largest fleet of icebreakers in the world and, like Finland, the skilled workforce and industry expertise to build them. “This partnership ensures Canada is strategically prepared to address emerging Arctic challenges, while showing that our domestic industries and expertise are central to security, economic growth and long-term prosperity,” Joël Lightbound, Canada’s minister of government transformation, public works and procurement, said in a news release.
Key agreements include:
- Workforce Development: Coordinating with the U.S. Department of Labor to establish an $8 million grant to develop an International Shipbuilding Fellowship, which funds opportunities for U.S. workers to travel to and learn from working at Finnish shipyards.
- Industrial Cooperation: A $1 billion investment by Canadian shipbuilder Davie to acquire and modernize U.S. shipyard assets in Texas for domestic icebreaker production.
- Efficient Icebreaker Acquisition: Using the ICE Pact framework to implement President Trump’s October Memorandum on Arctic Security Cutters, using innovative strategies like the Acquisitions Learning Forum to reduce costs and accelerate delivery timelines for polar icebreakers. So far, the U.S. Coast Guard already has acquired and commissioned the Cutter Storis, the first polar icebreaker acquired by the Coast Guard in 25 years.
- Research and Development: Collaborative efforts to leverage scientific investments for Arctic maritime operations, with joint projects advancing technologies in ice navigation, remote sensing and environmental monitoring.