(Updates with background.)
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida, March 29 (Reuters) –
Finnish President Alexander Stubb made a surprise trip on
Saturday to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump at his estate
in Florida, where the two leaders discussed strengthening their
countries’ bilateral partnership and played a round of golf.
“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 U.S., delivering Peace and
International Security for our Countries, and the World,” Trump
said in a post his on Truth Social social media site.
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.
The Finnish president’s office said in a statement that
Stubb’s unannounced visit to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in West
Palm Beach, Florida, was informal.
The meeting took place a day after Trump’s vice
president, JD Vance, made an uninvited visit to Greenland, a
semi-autonomous territory of Finland’s close Nordic ally
Denmark. Vance accused Denmark of doing a poor job keeping
Greenland safe.
Trump has expressed interest in acquiring Greenland,
part of a growing international focus on competition to control
the Arctic. Denmark’s government opposes such a move, as do most
Greenland residents.
Finland is the world’s leading producer of icebreakers.
About 80% of the ships have been designed by Finnish companies,
and around 60% of them have been built at Finnish shipyards.
In November, Canada, Finland and the U.S. 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 U.S. 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.
Trump’s frequent criticism of NATO allies and his shift
toward normalizing relations with Russia have some European
countries scrambling to boost their own defense spending.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal in Palm Beach, Ismail Shakil in
Toronto and Anne Kauranen in Helsinki; writing by Patricia
Zengerle; editing by Michelle Nichols and David Gregorio)
