Minister of Defence Antti Häkkänen's keynote speech at the Lithuania-Finland Defence Industry and Science Forum on 2 September 2025
Finnish Ministry of Defence
02.09.2025 16:19
Mr President, excellences, participants and partners of this Defence Industry Forum, ladies and gentlemen,
I want to thank the organizers of this Industry Forum for this great event and for the unique possibility to address you all.
It is great to see many familiar faces and new contacts in this Forum. I am delighted to see so many experts of security, defence, research, development and innovation here in Helsinki.
It is my great pleasure to welcome you all to Helsinki.
You are all warmly welcomed.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Compared to the size of the nation, Finland has a strong national defence.
It is generally known, that the Finland's citizens will to defend our beloved homeland is very high.
In a nutshell, Finland's Defence has both some unique ultramodern spearhead capabilities and mass. Mass comes from approximately 900 000 trained reservists that will create the wartime strength of 280 000 soldiers. The total number of reservists will be increased to one million within a period of five years.
Finland's Nato integration is developing with very fast pace. Finland, as Lithuania, is a part of Nato's Deterrence and defense.
A fine example of the spearhead capabilities is Finland's F-18 fleet with its modern weapons systems, of course soon to be replaced by 64 F35's. Finland is one of the key providers of Land Forces mobility capabilities, Finnish Seamines and Space capabilities are both very well known, just to name some.
You can find multiple other spearhead capabilities from the companies here present in this Industry event.
The National Defence is supported by globally leading Research and Development and innovation of multiple companies and industry. All this is done in a smooth co-operation with the high-level Universities, think tanks and similar actors.
The growth of exports of the Finnish defence, aerospace and security industries has been very significant in recent years.
From 2022 to 2023, the growth in defence, aerospace and security sectors exports was 32 %. Defence sector growth was 23 % and space sector growth was highest, 88 %.
In 2024, the value of export licenses granted for defence equipment was approximately 1,4 billion euros. The value has more than doubled compared to 2023.
I am confident that the growth will continue.
This shows that there is a rapidly growing demand for defence and security products. The Finnish and Lithuanian defence, aerospace and security industries are well known for their high quality and innovation capacity and premium products.
Lithuania and Finland have great possibilities to enlarge, deepen and start new actions for fruitful collaboration between countries.
There are very promising signs of genuine Baltic Sea cooperation around Seamines and landing crafts for instance. Lithuania and Finland being active, I dare to say driving forces behind the cooperation.
There are plenty of other opportunities as well, for example in armoured vehicles where the Finnish led CAVS program is picking up speed quickly. One might say that within this program, we are setting a new European standard, something that we are extremely proud of.
Today's event marks an important milestone as we strive to elevate our cooperation to the next level.
The Ministry of Defence of Finland stands ready to support further deepening of our industries cooperation.
Ladies and gentlemen,
both of our nations are strong supporters of Ukraine.
It is crucial that the war will not end in a way that rewards Russia as the aggressor.
Finland's 29th military material aid package, worth EUR 143 million, was decided in June. The combined replacement value of the donated materiel since the beginning of the war is already more than 2.8 billion euros.
So far, our military aid has been mainly based on donations from our Defence Forces' stocks. From now on our aid will be based increasingly on procurements from the Finnish defence industry.
The Finnish Government will fund orders from the Finnish defence industry to support Ukraine in 2025-2027 with EUR 660 million. The first material deliveries have already begun.
Finnish products are combat proven. We are confident that what works in the frontline of Ukraine is suitable for our and European Defence.
One of the key lessons learned from the war is possibility to scale up the Defence industry capacity. This means, that we have to optimize the need for stockpiling material and the capacity to increase production.
With this kind of approach we should be able to guarantee that the Defence has both the required readiness and the most modern systems and technology available for the forces.
Ladies and gentlemen,
In the Europe perspective, the development of European defence industry is more topical than ever before.
It is necessary for the EU to have a longer-term plan how to improve our defence industrial readiness. The current and future security climate demands this and new kind of approaches. It is essential to maintain a close dialogue with the industry and research community.
Finland welcomes the proposal to continue investing in European supply chains and production capacity.
It is important that the EU continues with a common approach. We have a positive view of SAFE and see potential in the instrument. We are however still in the process of assessing our ways and possibilities of participation.
The EDF holds an important significance for Finland, serving as a cornerstone for fostering cross-border defence Research and Development.
It not only incentivizes collaborative efforts, but also propels truly European-wide projects forward. In essence, the EDF is pivotal for advancing our collective capabilities.
Finland emphasises the need for an active participation and contribution of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the development of European defence industrial base to support innovation, agility and more resilient supply chains.
In EDIS, we especially welcome proposals that further enhances European defence R&D cooperation and the industrialisation of projects after the R&D phase.
We also place special focus on tapping the potential of dual-use technologies in the defence domain. Finland welcomes initiatives that cut the gap between the civilian and defence sectors.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The aim of this Industry Forum is strengthen our bilateral cooperation defence, security, space and aviation companies and authorities.
In the current security environment this is more important than ever after the Cold War.
I am confident that we all are in the right place at the right time.
Networking and partnerships are more important than ever.
This industry forum will create many excellent platforms and opportunities for co-operation. I encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to interact closely with each-others to build new ties and enhance already existing good cooperation for a better future for both of our countries.
I'm sure there are even more possibilities to further increase and enhance defence materiel cooperation between our countries by finding new areas where to cooperate.
Hopefully this industry forum offers an excellent opportunity for cooperation possibilities and benchmarking between industry and companies from both respective countries.
I wish you all fruitful and beneficial days in the beautiful Helsinki.
It is time to say very Finnish final words and call to action: Stop talking and start doing business, please!
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