Visegrad24 tweeted on September 5 that Finland will raise its military spending by 20% in 2023, increasing it to 2.25% of GDP.
Last May 5, Finland’s government already proposed increasing net spending by about 2.3 billion euros in its second draft supplementary budget for this year. The two main areas of spending are national Defense, in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and measures aimed at mitigating the harm caused by the Covid pandemic to children and young people. “Finland’s security environment has changed following Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, and this requires immediate measures to bolster defense capability and border security,” a government press release noted, adding that 2 billion euros will be allocated to Defense budgets.
The breakdown of the Defense figures include 690 million euros for the Ministry of Defense’s branch of government and for the Finnish Border Guard, 38 million euros aimed at improving cyber security and some 293 million euros to support the nation’s security of supply.