(Helsinki) During an inauguration ceremony on Wednesday in Finland, dignitaries marked the start of work on a new Canadian icebreaker, baptized Polar Maxintended to strengthen the defense of the Arctic.
This event inaugurates a trilateral partnership between the United States, Canada and Finland, announced by the White House in July 2024, which aims to strengthen defense in a region where Russia is increasingly active.
Moscow has many more galaes than the United States and Canada, at an hour when climate change has made the Arctic, a remote region of strategic importance, more accessible.
The collaboration pact on the Glaces, or ICE pact, aims to take advantage of Finland’s advanced expertise and technologies in terms of shipbuilding to meet the American and Canadian demand for new galaes.
The Canadian Minister of Defense Supply, Stephen Fuhr, said that the Canadian Coast Guard would be integrated into the army and that investing in the Arctic was important for the future.
Photo Markku Ulander, Associated Press
The Canadian Minister of Defense Supply, Stephen Fuhr
“The North opens, there are many reasons to be there,” said Fuhr. There are security and resource development challenges. »»
The shell will be built at the Helsinki shipyard before being transported to Canada, where it should be completed in Lévis by 2030.
The Minister of the Economy of Quebec, Christopher Skeete, underlined the advantages of cooperation for the construction of the new icebreaker.
“With this project, we come to reaffirm our expertise in the development of maritime infrastructure, we stimulate innovation, and above all, we bring together our teams around our common responsibilities in the Arctic,” he wrote on X.
“A transatlantic partnership that consolidates our key player position in this highly strategic sector,” added Mr. Skeete.
At a NATO summit in June, US President Donald Trump said Finland was the “king of the galades” and suggested that the United States could be willing to buy up to 15, including the second-hand icebreaker which, according to Mr. Trump, could be immediately available.
“We are trying to conclude a good agreement,” said the president.
According to a report from the Government Accountability Office in the United States, the Americans have not built a heavy polar icebreaker for almost 50 years. The last last in service is the coast guard Polar Star120 meters long and put into service in 1976.
During a conference given in February to the Rand Research Organization, the vice-admiral Peter Gautier of the American coast guard said that the agency determined that it needed eight to nine glaces, a mixture of heavy and medium ships.
Building an icebreaker can be complex, as it must be able to withstand violent shocks on ice creams of up to 6.4 meters thick and considerable variations in water and air temperature, notes the ratio.
