(Tribune News Service) — The Hampton Roads Alliance hosted the Embassy of Finland this week, leading the delegation on a tour of the region as NATO’s 31st allied nation explored local business opportunities in shipbuilding and port security.

“Not a single western country can do everything alone, but we can do a lot together,” Wille Rydman, Finnish minister of economic affairs, said Thursday during a reception at downtown Norfolk’s VIA Design.

Rydman is traveling across the U.S. and Canada with representatives from 20 Finnish companies that specialize in the maritime industry, such as Cadmatic, Pemamek and Helsinki Shipyard. While some of the companies in the delegation are already established in the U.S., Rydman said they are all interested in expanding their services to Hampton Roads in support of the region’s naval shipbuilding industry.

“Even though we are a small country, we are a country that is, in many ways, a superpower when it comes to shipbuilding and maritime industry, especially when it comes to icebreakers,” Rydman said, referencing specialized ships that are designed to plow through ice and frozen waterways.

Finland joined NATO in April 2023. The Nordic state, alongside new member Sweden, abandoned longtime policies of military nonalignment and Nordic neutrality in 2022 when the countries simultaneously applied to join NATO after Russia invaded Ukraine. Sweden officially joined NATO Thursday.

“Now all the prime Nordic countries — Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland — have entered the ally, which is a huge opportunity when it comes to defense planning, but also economic issues and technology issues,” Rydman said.

The Arctic is an increasingly contested region. NATO described it in December as a “pivotal area for global interests encompassing geopolitics, climate conservation, resource accessibility, and security concerns.”

“The productivity in the Arctic region will play a huge role in the future, and that is why it’s very important to tighten our strategic relationship between Finland, North America, the United States and Virginia,” Rydman said.

Finland has been working with the U.S. for years and has trained with U.S. forces. Finnish Konecranes was awarded a contract to supply the Port of Virginia with rail-mounted gantry cranes. And now Finland’s new NATO membership, Rydman said, allows for a closer working relationship between Finland and the U.S.

“Doing deals and trade between allies is, of course, much more confidential than between just partners,” Rydman said.

Hampton Roads is an attractive location for Finnish maritime companies as the region acts as a “hub for global security,” said Steve Harrison, chief operating officer of Hampton Roads Alliance. The alliance markets the region to companies to grow the economic base and jobs.

“It’s such a synergy between our community in Hampton Roads, which really is America’s maritime industrial home base, and Finland, which that is really a huge tenant of their economy,” Harrison said.

During Thursday’s reception, representatives from each company gave a short presentation explaining the skills or technology they would bring to Hampton Roads’ maritime industry. Their shipbuilding specialties ranged from hydraulic generators to welding automation to propulsion manufacturing. Among others were data software and artificial intelligence engineering.

If any of the Finnish companies decide to expand to the region, Harrison said they would join about 200 international companies that have established a North American or a regional headquarters in Hampton Roads.

Now that Sweden has joined NATO, Harrison said the Hampton Roads Alliance hopes to bring a Swedish delegation to the region in the future.

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