While Finland and Australia may seem to be at opposite ends of the Earth, there are opportunities to expand engagements between the two countries over and above those already in place.
The Nordic country brought its first-ever defence industry delegation to Australia at the Avalon Air Show this year, following that up with a larger delegation at Indo Pacific 2025.
Permanent Secretary Esa Pulkkinen, leader of the Indo Pacific delegation, noted that in addition to existing civilian and maritime engagements there are opportunities in space, cyber operations, communications, and academic cooperation.
He also stated that the work the delegation is conducting will be realised in the future as the two countries develop their cooperative capabilities and strengthen collaboration.
While Finland had maintained its neutrality for decades, Pulkkinen said the Russian invasion of Ukraine inspired the country to join NATO in 2023, helping to improve the country’s deterrence against invasion while also benefiting NATO through Finland’s strong national military.
According to Pulkkinen, being a NATO member has also increased the country’s opportunities to engage with NATO allies, including Australia.
Finland is particularly interested in cooperation in the space domain as, while it has no sovereign launch capabilities, the country has its own satellites and is at the forefront of low earth orbit operations.
Australia’s geography and launch sites provide opportunities for Finnish companies to engage with local entities to the benefit of both countries.
Pulkkinen observed that Australia’s engagement with disruptive technologies was similar to Finland’s and that both countries are experiencing increased cyber threats.
“Australia has good capabilities as does Finland, so when they are put together one plus one is more than two,” he said.
Pulkkinen also observed that the increased grey zone operations being experienced in the Nordic and Baltic regions could also be applied by other nations to the Indo-Pacific region, including disinformation campaigns, increased aggressive cyber activities, undersea cable breakages and GPS jamming.
The examples being witnessed in Ukraine also show that both grey zone activities and military attacks are increasingly being directed at civilian targets, putting a country’s resilience to the test.
“We need to increase our ties with the world’s liberal democracies in order to guarantee that the future will be based on our shared values rather than those of some big players globally,” Pulkkinen said.