The United States, Canada and Finland have quietly signed an agreement on the construction of icebreakers: ICE, also known as the Icebreaker Pact, as reported by Foreign Policy.
The agreement aims to bring together the technologies and production capabilities of the three Arctic states to create a modern fleet of icebreaker ships for NATO countries and their partners around the world, the publication writes. The new industrial alliance was quietly born on the sidelines of the NATO summit in July in Washington.
“The Icebreaker Pact is a response to two strategic problems facing the United States and its allies. Both are driven in one way or another by rivalry with China. First, there is a risk that China’s growing shipbuilding empire will push a stunted U.S. industry further to the margins. Second, increasing geopolitical competition in the Arctic has revealed the need for deeper coordination among NATO allies and partners to counter the emerging rapprochement between China and Russia in this region.” – says the article cited by INO TV.
The gap between NATO allies and their competitors in icebreaker production is only widening. Russia has a fleet of more than 40 state-owned and non-state-owned ice-class vessels, including nuclear-powered icebreakers; China now has four icebreakers, two of which entered service in the past five years, and is making plans for the future.
Meanwhile, Finland has 12 icebreakers in operation, Canada has nine, and the United States has only two outdated ships that are in urgent need of modernization. And while the Icebreaker Pact looks promising at this stage, much effort will be needed to overcome potential obstacles, the paper notes.
“First, several leading Finnish icebreaker companies have extensive ties to China. Another potential obstacle is the ongoing dispute between the United States and Canada. Ottawa claims exclusive jurisdiction over the vast Arctic waters, which contain the most important shipping route called the Northwest Passage, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the polar archipelagos. Until recently, this long-running dispute, based on differences in the interpretation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, was brewing in the background. However, it has come back to the fore in recent years as policymakers in both countries increasingly emphasize the importance of the Arctic for global trade and security. Removing these obstacles will be critical to the long-term success of the Icebreaker Pact,” the publication underlines.
