Finland to raise defence spending to 3% of GDP

Finland will raise national defence spending to at least three percent of GDP by 2029, said the Ministry of Defence in a press release.

The Ministerial Committee on Economic Policy on Tuesday endorsed the proposal made by the Minister of Defence Antti Häkkänen.

"By increasing national defence spending to at least three percent of GDP we will strengthen Finland's defence even further,” said the minister.

The government has also decided to launch materiel projects for the Army in a frontloaded manner.

"The increase in defence expenditure will mean that the Finnish Defence Forces will be granted additional funding in the spring 2025 spending limits decision totalling about 3,7 billion euros over the next four years. The Finnish Defence Forces will also be granted additional procurement authorities in order to frontload the Army's materiel projects planned for the 2030s", Häkkänen added.

According to the proposal, additional funding will be allocated, for example, to securing critical functions and maintaining defence materiel, which build the capability of the defence system to sustain long-term combat.

The spending limits decision on increasing appropriations and procurement authorities will be made as part of the General Government Fiscal Plan for 2026-2029.

The current base level of Finland's defence budget was decided before Russia launched its campaign in Ukraine in the spring of 2022.

In 2000-2020, Finland spent less than 1.5 percent of GDP on defence. The increase to defence appropriations has been prepared in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance.

According to the Government's Defence Report Russia's development of its military capabilities and its political aspirations pose a long-term security threat to Europe and to Finland.

Finland's position on how much the NATO defence spending target should be increased will be decided on later.