Chris Gattringer
Finland has announced it will withdraw from the Ottawa Convention, an international agreement banning the production and use of anti-personnel landmines.
On April 1, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo of the Conservative NCP party made the decision public.
The country would also significantly increase its spending on defence, the Finnish finance minister said.
“Finland is not currently facing an immediate military threat. Withdrawing from the Ottawa Convention will give us the possibility to prepare for the changes in the security environment in a more versatile way,” Orpo said.
“The most important goals of Finland’s foreign and security policy are to safeguard Finland’s independence and territorial integrity, to avoid becoming involved in a military conflict and to ensure the safety, security and wellbeing of the people of Finland,” he added.
Finance minister Riikka Purra, of the right-wing Finns party, also announced on April 1 that Finland would increase its defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP by 2029, up from 2.4 per cent in 2024.
Previously, the Finnish defence ministry had stated in a report that anti-personnel mines were well suited for Finland’s national defence as they enabled an advance of attackers to be slowed, minimising the home country’s casualties.
The report also stressed the mines were simple to produce and operate and could be easily used by Finnish conscript soldiers.
The Ottawa Convention, or Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, was a 1997 treaty and signed by 165 countries as of April 2025.
Signatory States vowed to refrain from using or developing anti-personnel mines and to ensure the destruction of existing stockpiles.
The convention referred to mines designed to detonate in the presence of or contact with a person but did not include anti-vehicle mines.
All European Union member states have signed the treaty, while Russia, the US China, India and Pakistan were among those who have not. Finland signed the convention in 2012, the last EU member state to do so.
In March 2025, Poland and the three Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania had announced they were backing out of the Ottawa Convention – subject to approval from the countries’ legislative bodies.
Latvian defence minister Andris Spruds said at the time it was necessary to prepare for the possibility that Russia would continue to pose a threat to the region, regardless of how the war in Ukraine developed.