U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that the United States may procure advanced ships from countries with close ties, as part of efforts to rebuild the nation’s shipbuilding industry, according to Yonhap.
The statement was made during a Cabinet meeting, where Trump highlighted the disparity between China’s shipbuilding capacity and that of the U.S.
“We are going to be rebuilding our shipbuilding business. We may order ... would have to go to Congress for this, but we may buy some ships from other countries that we’re close to and that do great jobs with ships, but we’re going to start the process of rebuilding,” Trump said.
He further noted, “We don’t really essentially build ships anymore, which is ridiculous. It’s going to be a very big business for us in the not-too-distant future, but in the meantime, we have countries that do very well at building ships, and we’ll be dealing with those countries, and we may be ordering top-of-the-line ships from those countries.”
The remarks followed a comment by National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, who stated that Chinese shipyards received 1,700 shipbuilding orders last year, compared to only five for American shipyards.
South Korea’s Ambassador to the U.S., Cho Hyun-dong, met with Ian Bennitt, senior director for maritime and industrial capacity at the White House, to explore avenues for enhancing bilateral shipbuilding cooperation, according to the ambassador’s office.
Additionally, Trump discussed shipbuilding cooperation with South Korea’s acting President Han Duck-soo during a phone call on Tuesday.