Minister of Defence Antti Häkkänen’s speech at the Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie event in Münich

Minister of Defence Antti Häkkänen held a speech at the Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie event in Münich on 13 February 2026.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Meine Damen und Herren, guten Morgen, good morning.

As the minister of Defence of the Republic of Finland it is a great pleasure to address you all.

Germany is the biggest and most important trading partner to Finnish companies. Out trade and business are mostly technology driven. I think that both Finland and Bavaria are especially well known for Engineering, Precision and quality. We both deliver what is promised and on time.

In my speech I will focus on some key aspects of technological development in the context of innovations.  

However, I will start from the current security environment that we are all facing both now and in the coming future.

I will also highlight some solutions, how Finland is tackling the threats and maximizing its security during these complex times.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Right now the world faces multiple challenges. Geopolitical tensions are rising, cyber threats are increasing, and new technologies from drones to artificial intelligence are reshaping both the future and the nature of conflict.

The line between physical and digital security has blurred. Also the line between military threats and civilian life is blurred. We are facing both the hard military threats and so called hybrid threats.

In Europe the defence is no longer somewhere else. It is everywhere around us, especially to us who are living in eastern or central Europe.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Russia’s aggressive and unlawful military attack on Ukraine is soon on its fourth year milestone.  We are all witnessing a the impacts of Russia’s large scale war in Ukraine.

Alongside its political and military goals in Ukraine, Russia’s goal is to establish the division of the west.

Russia is using military force to achieve its goals. After all Russia’s tools are more or less limited to military power, oil and gas.

Russia’s behaviour is endangering peace and stability throughout the Euro-Atlantic area, and also in the Indopasific region.

Russia’s illegal War is underlining two conclusions, what could act as key drivers to the development of our security.

Firstly the war has made it clear that we still need significant number of forces and firepower to tackle Russian threat. Russia’s strength in the battle is assessed to be between 500 000 and a million. Simultaneously Russia is able to produce hundreds of thousand drones and artillery grenades. We must find solutions to answers to this.

Secondly the war has clearly showed the requirement for fast adaptation of modern technology and capability to scale up the defence industry.

Naturally, both of these military conclusions need to be supported by decisive political, diplomatic and economic power.

Because of the Russian threat, we have taken multiple decisive steps to enhance our security.

Nato has transformed itself. I think that it is fair to say that Nato is finally back on its factory setting and core mission. 

This leads me to the first important conclusion in the form of a question.

Could someone in this room innovate a solution, that would tackle both the requirement for a massive armed forces on a cost effective way and a capability to ramp up defence industry together with a smooth way of utilizing innovations? How could we achieve all that?

I dare to say that it is obvious that future security cannot rely solely on neither traditional force structures nor legacy industrial models.

NATO provides a very clear answer for this identified challenge: Embracing objectives and agile mechanisms set in NATO’s Rapid Adoption Action Plan, launched in last June.  NATO is putting heavy efforts on creating accelerated pathways to strengthen the operational linkage between new innovative solutions and defence capability planning processes.

At the same time, NATO encourages the member states to ramp-up production and enhance industrial resilience.

In other words, the Alliance is building the mechanisms that allow us to be both cost‑effective and technologically agile. So that our collective defence remains credible, adaptable, and ready for the challenges ahead.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Finland location is on the Nato’s eastern border. We have half of the Nato’s Russian border, about 1300 kilometres. Being part of both the Baltic Sea region and the Arctic makes Finland’s location significant in terms of military strategy.

Russia has been our security challenge for most of our 700 year history.

These facts have created a special approach of being prepared and being ready to defend ourselves.  I think that compared to multiple other European states, or even with wider comparison, Finland is very well prepared. We have not had any other options. All nations would have done the same if they would have been in our situation.

Our security is based on a whole governmental approach called comprehensive security model. In this model everybody has a role and responsibility from single citizens to business companies and to third sector organizations.

The model is optimized for relatively small country with limited recourses. We have created a system where both the citizen have a strong trust towards different officials. Also the different ministries have a strong trust between each other and a relatively smooth cooperation. 

In other words we are trusting each other. 

We have had a similar approach towards our hard military security. We have a reservist based war time defence and armed forces. We have found this to be a cost-effective way to have in European scale a large trained reserve and war time strength of 280 000. For instance I am trained as a platoon leader in the Engineering branch.

We have about 1 million military trained men and women, who are less than 65 years old. This means that there is a huge capacity and capability to take actions in any kind of crises, especially in situations other than military crises.  

This leads me to the second conclusion.

Regardless of the high tech systems and software, I think that the human is still the ultimate warfighting machine.

The human is still the greatest dual or multiple used systems ever created. However, this ultimate machine is required to be supported by the best technology available. 

Ladies and gentlemen,

today the defence is no longer simply about armies, ships, and aircraft. It is about safeguarding the foundations that allow societies like this here in beautiful Bayer and cities like Munchen to flourish.

In an era of rapid change, we must protect not only our borders, but our values, our alliances, and the technologies that underpin our way of life.

That is why cooperation is essential.

No nation, no city, no business company and no institution can face these challenges alone. The partnerships we build across governments, nations, across industries, and between people are fundamental to our security.

In today’s rapidly evolving security environment, innovation and utilization of dual used technology is not a luxury, it is a necessity. Bleeding edge technologies are not developed solely in a military context anymore and civilian innovation is driving technological advance in many respects.

Innovations are shaping the macro level security solutions and the armed forces capabilities faster than ever.

Making use of new technologies in a fast-paced environment requires the ability to absorb knowledge, develop new ways of working and new partnerships in a timely and strategic manner.

In this fast-moving landscape, it is paramount to ensure that EU Member States and NATO allies maintain and enhance their strategic technological advantage and strategic autonomy in terms of knowledge, skills, and ability to deliver advanced systems.

The key goal is to ensure that EU members states and NATO nations will maintain and enhances their strategic technological advantage in a world.

The latest changes in international politics are underlining the importance of Strategic Autonomy. In other words Europe must be more self-sufficient in the fields of critical technologies and military material.

There are already multiple very good examples of this kind of autonomy. Many European nations have chosen to use similar military equipment’s. For example many nations, including Germany and Finland, are using German Leopard II tanks. Bundeswehr just lately decided to join Common Armored Vehicle System programme. These are fine examples what European cooperation means for both armed forces and for the industry.  

However, we still have far too large variety of systems in European armed forces.

Both Finland and Germany have a much more to contribute to achieve the goal of European autonomy. This is vital for maintaining future technology competence necessary for defence and security.

Finland has many high level innovation hubs and industry especially in the areas of Space, Artificial intelligence and digital services, 5G and 6G technology and quantum.

We have worked systematically to support export promotion to showcase Finnish technological excellence. We have also taken multiple efforts to develop partnerships with companies both bilaterally and within the frameworks of the European Union and NATO.

I think that the strong economic bond between our nations is a great platform to deepen our cooperation also in the areas of dual use technology.

It goes without saying that the foundation for innovation capabilities under emergency conditions is laid under normal peace time conditions.

By integrating defence considerations into national innovation policy landscape, we create stronger foundations for resilience, competitiveness, and international collaboration.

This leads me to the third conclusion.

The latest achievements in the areas of Space and super modern digital innovations are based on education and research. Only by investing on schooling and research we are able to enjoy the fruits of the dual use technology.

Likewise, our ability to use these innovations relies on an educated and skilled workforce, that enables us to capture the opportunities provided by technological advancements and put them into use in defense and other walks of life.

Finally,

Events like this here in Munchen are a clear evidence, that we need each other. It also underlines, that we need our selves more than ever.

I wish the very best of success to the companies, researchers and parties here present, who are shaping the future through defence innovation.