Minister of Defence Antti Häkkänen's speech at the SecD-Day conference and exhibition on 29 January 2025

Ladies and gentlemen,

I want to thank the organizers of the SecD-Day for this great event and for the unique possibility to address you all.

It is my great pleasure to welcome you all.

It is also my privilege to welcome my very good colleagues and friends from NATO.

I especially want to welcome to Helsinki the General Director Ms. Stacy Cummins from NSPA, and the Assistant Secretary General for NATO’s Defence Investment Ms. Tarja Jaakkola.

Stacy and Tarja you are both warmly welcomed.  

I am delighted to see so many experts of security, defence, research, development and innovation here in Helsinki.

It is great to see so many familiar faces from previous defence and security events organized in Europe and in Asia. It is also great to see so many new faces. You are all warmly welcome to Helsinki.

Compared to the size of the nation, Finland has a strong national defence.

This 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 %.

Strong growth continued last year. I am confident that the growth will continue this year as well.

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.

This shows that there is a rapidly growing demand for Finnish products. The Finnish defence, aerospace and security industries are well known for their high quality and innovation capacity and premium products.

Finnish companies are widely known as manufacturers of premium products with long life-cycle performance as well as innovative utilizers of state-of-the-art technology.

These solutions and products are built for extreme conditions, and they meet the highest standards required by the Finnish Government, NATO, and the European Union.

For example, in the defence and security Finnish companies are world leaders in the capability areas such as mobility, weapon systems, ammunition and C Five ISR. Just to mention some capability areas.

Finnish products are combat proven. And they are reliable in the most demanding weather conditions in this planet and in the space domain.

Finland has also one unique strength. We are widely known and famous, that we deliver what we promise.

This is generally described as “Finns are non-nonsense persons”. We are known and a bit famous for going quite directly to the business. We deliver what is agreed on the highest level.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Finnish Defence Forces is the biggest customer of some of the Finnish defence and security sector companies here present.

During the last two years, we have allocated more recourses to support the defence and security sector companies to support their business and their Research, Development and Innovation.

Next, I will give some figures and examples of the defence spending, and how we support the defence sales and the innovation.

With the support of the Ministry of Defence, more than 100 million euros of EU funds have been allocated to Research, Development and Innovation to the defence sector. This European Defence Fund funding is distributed to app. 30 different companies.

Ministry of Defence and Finnish Defence forces are constantly looking forward for partners in Research and Development. Both from Finland and from other nations. 

In the NATO context, Finland has been a member of the NATO Innovation Fund since May 2023. The Fund has total capital of one billion euros. This fund is mainly to invest on start-ups.

Also in the NATO context, four Finnish companies are part of the NATO’s DIANA programme.

As I mentioned, Finland’s Defence is the biggest customer for most of the companies here present.

During the year 2023 Defence procurent was 1,7 billion euros. About 733 million of this was allocated for procurement with Defence Forces strategic partner companies.

The biggest procurement programme is the procurement of 64 F-35 fighters. It is important to highlight that multiple Finnish companies are in the F-35 programme.  Finnish companies are part of the production chain of the F-35 global programme.

One of the biggest ongoing projects is the building of four new Corvette’s for the Navy. The total budget of the programme is more than 1,3 billion euros. The ice breaking capable ships are optimized for warfighting in the Arctic environment.

I want to mention some other key programmes.

In the land domain one of the key programmes is the ongoing CAVS-programme. CAVS-programme is one of the leading land movement capability programmes in Europe.

The other example is the US-Canadian-Finnish Ice Pact programme. This shows that Finland is the leading actor in the arctic warfare domain. The aim of the programme is to build best ice breaking capable ships on the planet.

I want to mention one more. Finland has a lot to offer in sub-surface warfare. We are the leading sea mine capability nation in the Baltic Sea region. 

During the last two years Finland’s Ministry of Defence has strongly supported the business models. for instance, have developed a hybrid Goverment to Government cooperation model to support business opportunities.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The aim of the SecD-Day is to increase interaction between defence, security, space and aviation companies and authorities.

In the current security environment this is more important that 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.

We all have the same task. Boost the European innovation and production of the security and defence sector. In other words: produce more, deliver more and innovate more. We all must work harder but also smarter.

We all have the same aim. Build up solutions that support Europe’s security and defence. In other words: make Europe safer.

We all have the same will. We will all continue to support Ukraine.

Most important we are all here in the right place – we are in Helsinki and in the SecD-Day 2025 event.

Ladies and gentlemen,

There are about 200 companies and organizations present. That is a fantastic achievement. I am sure that not all of you have travelled to the top of the world because of the fine weather or great food.

I am confident that you are all here because Finland has so much to offer. We have a lot to offer in innovation, cost-effective solutions and reliable business partnerships.

With these words it is my great honor to open the SecD-Day 2025 event.

I wish you all fruitful and beneficial days in the beautiful Helsinki.

In the context of non-nonsense, it is time to say final words and call to action:

Start doing business, please!