Finland is seeking the jackpot from the NATO summit – These companies are included

Finland seeks not only security political but also industrial benefits from the NATO summit to be held in Ankara, Turkey next week.

News about significant defense industry projects is expected from Ankara. Some of them are related to national defense, some to joint arrangements of country groups, and some to NATO’s joint defense.

The Minister of Defense predicts good news already in June Antti Häkkänen (kok), when he said at the NATO Defense Ministers’ Meeting in Brussels that there is “good news” for Finland at the Ankara Defense Industry Forum.

NATO and security policy sources interviewed by Kauppalehti also assure that contracts and defense industry projects in which Finland and Finnish companies are involved will be announced in Ankara.

From the list of participants of the defense industry forum held on Tuesday in connection with the NATO summit, it can be deduced which Finnish companies may be involved when possible contracts are announced. Finnish companies going to Ankara are Bittium, Forcit Group, Iceye, Insta, Nokia, Patria and Sensofusion.

Anticipation in the frame rush

In the spring 2026 framework rush, the government made decisions that were directly related to Ankara’s defense industry publications.

Finland intends to allocate a total of approximately 1.13 billion euros of additional funding to defense for the years 2027–2030.

Based on the decisions made in the framework meeting, the allocations are allocated to combating drones and explosives production, among other things.

Defense Minister Häkkänen said in June that funding for the framework was needed so that Finland could participate in NATO’s joint procurements and international defense industry projects in time.

According to information from Kauppalehti, there are announcements to be made in Ankara, some of which are genuinely new and some of which have moved on, but already started projects. The sources did not agree to comment on future announcements in more detail. One source stated late Thursday evening that “it is still a bit uncertain which projects were able to fit in and have time to participate”.

US withdrawal

The background to the emphasis on the role of the defense industry in Ankara is that European countries and Canada need to take greater responsibility for their own defense than before, while the United States increasingly directs its attention to managing China challenges.

Ankara is also evaluating how the goal agreed at last year’s summit in The Hague to raise defense investments to five percent of gross domestic product is progressing, and where the tens of billions of euros will be spent. NATO wants to increase the production of weapons, ammunition and other military material, as well as improve supply chains and the development of defense technology.

As one source described: “Ankara wants to send a message that something is really being done now”, in which case the outcome of the meeting should be a stronger Europe in a stronger NATO.

However, there are still enough problems to solve.

The problem of the European defense industry is heavy bureaucracy and the fragmentation of the market, and because the demand for the defense industry has been uncertain for a long time, the production capacity is too small in many places. In addition, political structures and regulation have slowed down the response, even though Russia’s war of aggression has permanently changed the security environment.

The problems are not limited to the old continent, the United States also admits that the world’s largest military power is in trouble with its own defense industrial production.

In NATO project cooperation, the United States emphasizes air defense, long-range strike capability and unmanned systems in particular.

The NATO power wants concrete results from Ankara: “More tanks, more F-35 fighters, more air defense and more drone systems”, as the US ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker on Wednesday stated.

According to Kauppalehti’s information, the United States has drawn up several initiative papers on defense industrial cooperation and production for allied countries.

Ankara will finally hear how the 31 other member countries feel about them. The atmosphere is not the best possible since the president Donald Trump and his regimes have repeatedly barked at allied countries.

According to Whitaker, the United States welcomes Europe’s efforts to increase defense production and reduce regulation, but at the same time, he stated that the United States opposes the “protectionist language” of many European defense initiatives, which means a “buy European” emphasis in defense projects.

In Europe, on the other hand, it is seen that prioritizing one’s own defense industry is a necessity, as the United States turns its gaze even more elsewhere.

However, Whitaker said that he expects that the handshake between Europe and the United States will lead to some kind of agreement in Ankara and that the final statement of the meeting will be positively surprising.

Correction 3/7/2026 at 10:18: Corrected Patria’s company coding.