Icebreakers, the key tech to unlock Greenland, are only made by either US allies or adversaries

BRUSSELS (AP) — The cold, hard reality facing any U.S., NATO or European plans for Greenland is the ice. It chokes harbors, entombs minerals, and freezes shorelines into minefields of white and blue shards that threaten ships all year.

And the only way to break through all that is, well, with icebreakers: enormous ships with burly engines, reinforced hulls, and heavy bows that can crush and cleave ice.

But the United States has only three such vessels, one of which is so decrepit as to be barely usable. It has entered agreements to obtain 11 more, but can only source additional ships from adversaries — or allies it has recently rebuffed.

Despite toning down his rhetoric, U.S. President Donald Trump seems set on the U.S. owning Greenland for security and economic reasons: to keep what he calls “the big, beautiful piece of ice” out of the hands of Moscow and Beijing, to secure a strategic Arctic location for U.S. assets, and to extract the island’s mineral wealth including rare earths.

Without specifying any plan, he told world leaders gathered in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday that “to get to this rare earth you got to go through hundreds of feet of ice.”

Yet there is no meaningful way to do that — or anything else in the semiautonomous Danish territory — without icebreakers’ crucial ability to cut trails through frozen seas.

Even if they decided to surge U.S. material into Greenland tomorrow, “they would have two or three years gap in which they’re not really able to access the island most of the time,” said Alberto Rizzi, a fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

“On a map, Greenland looks surrounded by sea, but the reality is that the sea is full of ice,” he said.

If the U.S. wants more icebreakers, there are only four options: the shipyards of strategic adversaries China and Russia or longtime allies Canada and Finland, both of whom have recently weathered blistering criticism and threats of tariffs by Trump over Greenland.

Icebreakers are expensive to design, build, operate and maintain and require a skilled workforce that can only be found in certain places like Finland, with expertise forged in the frigid Baltic Sea.

Finland has built roughly 60% of the world’s fleet of more than 240 icebreakers and designed half the remainder, Rizzi said.

“It’s very niche capabilities that they developed as a necessity first and then they have been able to turn it into geoeconomic leverage,” he said.

Russia has the world’s largest fleet with about 100 vessels, including colossal ships powered by nuclear reactors. Second comes Canada, which is set to double its fleet to around 50 icebreakers, according to a 2024 report by Aker Arctic, a Helsinki-based icebreaker design firm.

“Our design and engineering work order books are pretty full at the moment and the near future looks promising," said Jari Hurttia, business manager at Aker Arctic, as he describes rising interest in the firm's “unrivalled special competence which is not available anywhere else in the world.”

China currently has five compared to the U.S. three, and is rapidly building more as they expand their ambitions in the Arctic, said Marc Lanteigne, a professor at the University of Tromsø in Norway who teaches often at the University of Greenland in Nuuk.

“China is now in a position to develop indigenous icebreakers, and so the U.S. feels it must do the same,” he said.

Washington has to play catch up, and fast, said Sophie Arts, a fellow at the German Marshall Fund focused on Arctic security.

“President Trump has really bemoaned this lack of icebreakers, especially in comparison to Russia,” Arts said. The 2 of the 3 U.S. icebreakers are “basically past their life cycle already."

So he turned to the undeniable expertise of the European Union’s northernmost nation and the U.S.’s neighbor to the north.

“Both Canada and Finland are really, really vital to this,” Arts said. “Cooperation is what makes this possible ... the U.S. doesn’t really have a pathway to do this on its own at this time.”

During his first administration, Trump prioritized the U.S. military’s acquisition of ice-capable vessels, a strategy that the Biden administration followed up on by signing an agreement called the Ice PACT with Helsinki and Ottawa to deliver 11 icebreakers constructed by two corporate consortiums with Finnish designs.

Four would be built in Finland, while seven would be constructed in a Canadian-owned billion-dollar “American Icebreaker Factory” in Texas as well as a shipyard in Mississippi under joint U.S.-Canadian ownership.

Any mining of critical minerals would face high costs in the harsh conditions at sea and on land in Greenland. Investments there would take years if not decades to pay off, Lanteigne said.

Even with adequate icebreakers, the price to build and maintain mining or defensive facilities — like those envisioned in the yet-unfunded $175 billion Golden Dome missile defense network linking detectors and interceptors in space and on the ground — would be enormous.

That means U.S. allies in the Arctic might still welcome more investment by Washington in Greenland.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement that she would be open to strengthening Arctic security including the U.S. Golden Dome program “provided that this is done with respect for our territorial integrity.”

While both the U.S. and the 27-nation European Union including Denmark and Finland have pledged to vastly increase investment in Greenland, it is clear who currently has the hard-power capability to actually reach the vast frozen territory roughly three times the size of Texas.

“It’s kind of absurd because I don’t think Finland would scrap the deal with the U.S. as a response to threatening to invade Greenland,” Rizzi said. “But if Europe wants to exercise significant leverage to the USA, they could say ‘We’re not going to give you any icebreakers and good luck reaching the Arctic, or projecting power there, with those two old ships that you have.’”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reminded world leaders Tuesday at Davos of the key EU-technology base for any Arctic endeavors.

“Finland — one of the newest NATO members — is selling its first icebreakers to the U.S.,” von der Leyen said at the World Economic Forum.

“This shows that we have the capability right here, in the ice so to speak, that our northern NATO members have Arctic-ready forces right now, and above all, that Arctic security can only be achieved together.”

She announced after an emergency summit of the 27 EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday that the EU would surge defense spending in Greenland including an icebreaker.

FILE - Pieces of ice move through the sea in Qoornoq Island, near Nuuk, Greenland, on Feb. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)

Military vessel HDMS Knud Rasmussen of the Royal Danish Navy patrols near Nuuk, Greenland, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A woman walks with her dog in Nuuk, Greenland, on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A Danish serviceman climbs out of a hatch on the bow of the military vessel HDMS Knud Rasmussen of the Royal Danish Navy docked in Nuuk, Greenland, on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Military vessel HDMS Knud Rasmussen of the Royal Danish Navy patrols near Nuuk, Greenland, on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

FILE -Finnish icebreaker Polaris is moored in Helsinki, Finland, Thursday Sept. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/David Keyton, File)

Leaders at the World Economic Forum urged countries and businesses to filter out the turmoil from a week of clashes with the Trump administration and focus on boosting growth and fighting inequality.

The global economy is showing unexpected resilience despite the noise, European Central Bank head Christine Lagarde, International Monetary Fund head Kristalina Georgieva and World Trade Organization head Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala during a discussion at Davos.

But while growth is holding up, troubles like worrisome levels of government debt and inequality loom.

That resilience is holding up despite disruptions from US trade policy under President Donald Trump, who threatened to impose tariffs on countries supporting Greenland against a U.S. takeover bid, then withdrew the tariff proposal.

The Latest:

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is part of Trump’s team holding three-way negotiations Friday in the United Arab Emirates on ending the Russia-Ukraine war, a U.S. official says.

Special envoy Steve Witkoff asked Driscoll to attend given his experience serving in and leading the Army, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive diplomatic process.

Driscoll was previously tapped to help with such talks last November during a preplanned trip to Ukraine meant to discuss drone warfare.

He met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and joined Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Witkoff and other top negotiators in Geneva for more talks before traveling to Abu Dhabi to negotiate with the Russians on that previous trip.The U.S. official didn’t have a sense of how long this latest round of negotiating was expected to last. The development was reported earlier by Politico and Fox News.

— By Konstantin Toropin

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has urged Trump to apologize for his false assertion that troops from NATO countries — other than Americans — stayed away from the front line during the war in Afghanistan.

Trump said that he wasn’t sure NATO would be there to support the U.S. if and when requested, provoking outrage and distress among many in the U.K. on Friday.

Starmer said Trump’s remarks were insulting and frankly appalling.” More than 150,000 British troops served in Afghanistan in the years after the U.S.-led 2001 invasion, the largest contingent after the American one. More than 450 of them died.

Trump’s top Supreme Court lawyer told the justices that the map designed to elect up to five more Democratic House members “is tainted by an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.”

Solicitor General D. John Sauer previously defended Texas’ map, engineered to elect up to five additional Republicans, as a legal partisan gerrymander. Trump’s push for Texas Republicans to redistrict congressional boundaries led California to redo its own districts, with control of Congress on the line in this year’s elections.

The justices already have allowed Texas to use its new map, blocking a lower-court order that found it was likely racially discriminatory. Last month, a federal court in Sacramento rejected arguments that the new California districts impermissibly favor Hispanic voters. Voters approved the new districts in November.

Republicans want the court to act before qualifying for congressional primaries begins next month.

Peru and Saudi Arabia are now officially members of a semi-exclusive club of “major non-NATO allies” of the United States following the publication of formal notices in the Federal Register.

Trump had announced in December that he would add both countries to the group, membership in which allows nations to buy U.S. armaments under the same terms and most conditions as NATO members.

With the formal addition of Peru and Saudi Arabia on Friday, there are now 22 major non-NATO allies on four continents.The Trump administration has already approved billions of dollars in arms sales to Saudi Arabia and just last week announced a $1.5 billion sale to Peru of design and construction supplies and equipment to upgrade and expand its main naval base.

Iran’s top prosecutor has called Trump’s claims about halting the hangings of 800 detained protesters “completely false.”

Activists say Iran’s crackdown has already killed at least 5,002 people. The internet blackout in Iran has lasted over two weeks, making it hard to confirm information.

Meanwhile, tensions between the U.S. and Iran remain high as an American aircraft carrier group moves closer to the Middle East. Analysts say this could give Trump the option to carry out strikes, though he has avoided that so far despite warnings to Tehran.

Trump has provoked outrage in the U.K. with his suggestion that troops from NATO countries stayed away from the frontline during the war in Afghanistan.

In an interview in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Trump said he was not sure NATO would support the U.S. if and when requested.

He says troops “stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.” U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey says those British troops ”should be remembered for who they were: heroes who gave their lives in service of our nation.”

The U.S. has finalized its withdrawal from the World Health Organization.

Officials announced the completion Thursday, which follows Trump’s announcement a year ago.

The U.S. owes over $130 million to the WHO, and unresolved issues remain, like access to global health data. Experts warn the move could harm global health responses and hinder U.S. vaccine development.

The withdrawal affects U.S. participation in WHO committees and global flu surveillance. Trump cited the WHO’s handling of COVID-19 and lack of reforms as reasons for the exit. Critics call the decision shortsighted and reckless.

President Donald Trump walks down the stairs of Air Force One upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026, after returning from the World Economic Forum in Davos.(AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)