Finland is looking into establishing an aggregator of icebreaking services involving Russia and considers it to be a promising project, Eero Hokkanen, Communications Manager at Arctia Ltd., state operator of icebreakers in Finland, told journalists. According to him, Finland sees it reasonable to establish an aggregator similar to Uber (taxi) which would provide vessel operators with icebreaker escort services involving icebreaking fleets of Russia, Finland, Canada, USA, Norway and the Baltic states.
Moreover, Finland considers it expedient to implement the Arctic Mediterranean idea providing for cooperation between the North Europe countries and the western regions of Russia’s Arctic through common regulation, labour market and infrastructure development plan as well as common position on Arctic issues.
However, Eero Hokkanen says implementation of this initiative is only possible after sanctions are lifted and geopolitical situation related to Russia is normalized.