China 'massively' fuels Russia's war chest: Finnish defense minister

By AFP | 2025-11-17

China is "massively" financing Russia's war efforts, which increases the security threat in Europe and poses a challenge to NATO, Finnish Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen said.

Speaking to AFP on November 12, Hakkanen said Russia's cooperation with China had "gone so far" and that "China is currently massively financing Russia's war chest."

"Russia would not be able to wage war for very long with its own resources. India, of course, provides funding in other ways, but China is doing so quite deliberately," the minister said after meeting with his Nordic counterparts in Helsinki.

"It is supplying military components, cooperating in the defense industry, and organizing joint military exercises and various other large-scale activities in the Arctic, Indo-Pacific and European regions," he added, calling it a big but manageable challenge for the Western military alliance NATO.

Nordic countries are stepping up their defense cooperation to counter future threats while supporting NATO's capabilities in the north, Hakkanen said.

"Today, we already discussed the use of 250 Nordic fighter aircrafts from the air forces as a unified force," he said.

Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Norway and Denmark are planning to triple ammunition production and develop military mobility corridors in the Nordic region, he added.

Nordic and Baltic countries also announced on November 13 that they would contribute $500 million to a scheme set up to purchase US weapons for Ukraine.

The funds will be allocated for military equipment and ammunition under NATO's Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL), said Finland, Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden in a joint statement.

The mechanism enabling the purchase of US stockpiles was launched by US President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in July.

"This joint pledge to contribute to the PURL initiative will further strengthen the commitment of the Nordic and Baltic countries to supporting Ukraine," said Hakkanen.

"It is crucial that Ukraine receives critical defense materiel quickly," he added.

Russian move against Finland?

"Russia's war of aggression is a long-term threat to European security, the transatlantic community and the rules-based international order," said the joint statement.

"We will not allow it to succeed."

Finland, which shares a 1,340-km (830-mile) border with Russia, dropped decades of military non-alignment by joining NATO in 2023, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Speculation is rife that Russia could be preparing for future military action against Finland once its war in Ukraine is over.

Moscow has repeatedly warned Finland of repercussions since it joined NATO.

In May, the Finnish Defense Forces told AFP that "Russia is building more infrastructure to be able to bring in more troops after the war (in Ukraine) is over."

A grand duchy since 1809, Finland declared independence from Russia in 1917 -- only to find itself fending off a Soviet invasion in 1939.

Helsinki put up a fierce fight but was forced to cede a huge stretch of its eastern Karelia province in a peace treaty with Moscow.

The country of 5.6 million has maintained a strong army over the years, with a wartime strength of 280,000 soldiers plus 870,000 reservists.