How would you describe the current state of Brazil–Finland relations? 

The relationship is in excellent shape and gaining momentum. The bilateral agenda has real substance and ranges from defense and security to science and technology, trade and investment. The best way to illustrate that is through concrete examples: Brazilian researchers in Oulu developing 6G standards alongside Finnish engineers, Finnish satellites monitoring the Amazon, Finnish capital deepening roots in Brazil’s defence industrial base, Brazilian airplanes flying for Finnair. In fact, Finland has become, for Brazil, considerably more than a reference in education or a perennial top performer in global happiness rankings. A strategic partnership is developing across many areas simultaneously, and the depth of that is work in progress.  

The evolving geopolitical situation contributes to this renewed dynamism in important ways. Brazil and Finland are both actively seeking trustworthy partners in a world of rising uncertainty, both looking to diversify relationships and capture new opportunities. That convergence of intent, combined with the genuine complementarity between our economies and the shared values that underpin our institutions, means the conditions for a much stronger relationship are in place. The opportunities are real, they are concrete, and in several cases, they are already being seized. 

What sectors are currently driving Brazil’s economic growth, and where do you see the most potential for Finnish companies? 

Brazil has been delivering stronger results than many expected. GDP grew at 3.2% in 2023 and 3.4% in 2024, both years outperforming consensus forecasts, before moderating toward approximately 2.2 to 2.5% in 2025. Growth has been driven by robust domestic consumption, agribusiness, manufacturing, renewable energy, digitalisation, health industries, and the bioeconomy. The EU-Mercosur Agreement, now concluded, is set to restore commercial dynamism and give production chains greater regulatory predictability among our regions. 

For Finnish companies, the alignment between Brazil’s development agenda and Finnish industrial strengths is unusually direct. In mining, there is strong demand for solutions in tailings recovery, waste rock reduction, and water-efficient processing. In forestry, pulp, and paper, Brazil is already a global leader and Finnish companies supply high-end machinery and digital solutions for mills, while growing interest in sustainable textiles adds another dimension. In energy, the northeast offers enormous potential for wind, solar, and low-emission hydrogen, and Finnish expertise in smart grids, energy storage, and biofuels is actively sought. In healthcare, Brazil allocates close to 10% of GDP to health expenditure, and the Brazilian Artificial Intelligence Plan 2024-2028 has earmarked R$23 billion for technology, one third of it focused on health — a natural entry point for Finnish companies working in AI diagnostics, remote care, and services for ageing populations. 

Defence and strategic technologies deserve particular attention. Brazil has recently accredited military attachés to Finland, a formal step that reflects the seriousness with which Brazil views this relationship, and we have seen rising interest from defence industries on both sides. Finnish companies with capabilities ranging from cyber warfare and hybrid threat response to advanced munitions and autonomous systems will find a Brazilian defence sector that is actively modernising and open to partnerships. The Finnish satellite company ICEYE is a striking illustration of this convergence. The Brazilian Air Force was ICEYE’s first government and military client anywhere in the world, procuring two SAR satellites in 2020, well ahead of the more recent deals with Sweden, Germany, Japan, and others. Modirum Defence, another Finnish company, has acquired a majority stake in Gespi, one of Latin America’s largest defence manufacturers, headquartered in São José dos Campos and classified as a Strategic Defence Enterprise by the Brazilian Ministry of Defence. Together they are now producing NATO-standard 155mm artillery ammunition, integrating Finnish AI-driven capabilities with Brazilian hardware manufacturing expertise. Wärtsilä, together with other Finnish companies, is participating in the construction of Brazil’s new Antarctic Support Ship, at the intersection of maritime technology, sovereignty, and environmental research. 

The Brazilian aerospace industry’s relationship with Finland also has deeper roots than many realise. Embraer has been supplying regional jets to the Finnish market for two decades and is now looking at Finland with growing strategic interest, actively exploring partnerships in technology, energy, and defence. The C-390 Millennium multi-mission aircraft is becoming a European standard, with the Netherlands, Sweden, Portugal, Hungary, and the Czech Republic among its operators. Finland’s NATO membership and the accelerating modernisation of European air forces make it a natural next chapter, and conversations about the C-390’s potential fit for Finnish requirements are part of a broader and increasingly substantive Embraer engagement with this country. 

How attractive is Brazil’s investment environment today, and are there new incentives for foreign investors? 

Brazil offers foreign investors something that is sometimes underestimated: institutional stability. The country has solid democratic institutions, the rule of law, and strong constitutional checks and balances. That matters enormously in the current global environment. Macroeconomic stability and sustained growth complete the picture. Brazil consistently receives around half of all FDI inflows into South America and has attracted significant investment in renewable energy, data centres, and green technologies. UNCTAD’s 2025 data identified Brazil among the emerging markets attracting major data centre projects globally, driven by AI infrastructure demand. 

Two recent regulatory changes stand out. The comprehensive tax reform approved in December 2023 replaces five fragmented federal, state, and municipal consumption taxes with a dual VAT model, reducing cascading taxation, harmonising rules across jurisdictions, and substantially simplifying administrative procedures. The EU-Mercosur Agreement has significantly lowered barriers for European capital and industrial equipment. Several new government programmes reinforce this picture: the New Industry Brazil policy, the Novo PAC infrastructure programme, and a suite of green transition instruments covering renewable fuels, low-carbon hydrogen, a domestic carbon market, and the National Circular Economy Strategy. For Finnish startups specifically, APEX Brasil’s ScaleUp inBrazil programme, developed in partnership with Business Finland, has included Finland among its target countries from the 2025 call onward. 

The Finnish presence in Brazil already tells part of the story: approximately 50 Finnish companies currently operate there, generating close to 10,000 direct jobs, with Nokia, Konecranes, Metso, UPM Raflatac, and Wärtsilä among the most prominent. 

Which reforms or policies should Finnish companies follow closely in the next two to three years? 

Two things above all. First, the ratification and implementation process for the EU-Mercosur trade deal, where the commercial implications are significant and will unfold progressively. Second, the consumption tax reform, which is being phased in and will reshape compliance and cost structures for businesses operating in Brazil. Finnish companies should also note that Law No. 15.270/2025 has reintroduced taxation on profit distributions to shareholders for the first time since 1995, a material change for dividend policy. For technology companies, the AI Governance Framework known as Bill No. 2338/2023, effectively Brazil’s AI Act, is in its final stages of debate. Following a risk-based approach similar to the EU model, companies working in AI-enabled sectors will want to engage with it early. 

Brazil is a global player in bioeconomy and renewables. How do you see opportunities for Finnish-Brazilian collaboration in the green transition? 

The complementarity here is genuinely striking. Brazil has scale and natural endowment: 92% of its electricity already comes from renewable sources, globally significant biofuel production, nearly 500 million hectares of forests of which 97% is natural vegetation, and some of the world’s lowest production costs for low-carbon hydrogen. Finland has depth in decarbonisation technology, sustainable forestry management, nature-based solutions, and biodiversity monitoring. When the two come together, the result is more than the sum of the parts. 

The 2025 World Circular Economy Forum in São Paulo, organised through a partnership between SITRA and Brazilian industry organisations FIESP, CNI, and SENAI, illustrated that dynamic well. The most promising areas include low-carbon hydrogen and electrofuels, where Finland aims for 10% of EU production by 2030 and Brazil offers extraordinarily competitive energy costs; sustainable aviation fuel, where both countries are positioning as global leaders; sustainable textiles, where the former Spinnova-Suzano joint venture showed what Finnish fibre technology and Brazilian pulp production can achieve together; and biodiversity solutions, where Finland’s expertise in monitoring and sustainable forest management meets Brazil’s unmatched natural capital. 

How do global shifts, EU-Mercosur, green supply chains, and geopolitical tensions influence Brazil’s international positioning? 

Brazil is navigating a changing global order with strategic clarity, and current challenges also offer opportunities. The EU-Mercosur agreement is not purely a trade deal. Both sides have framed it deliberately as an affirmation of rules-based trade at a moment when protectionism is gaining ground globally, positioning Brazil as a credible bridge between Global South concerns and major economic blocs in the Global North. Beyond the agreement itself, there is a broader dynamic: in a world where supply chains are being restructured around reliability and political alignment, Brazil’s profile as a stable, democratic, resource-rich country has become a genuine competitive asset. 

The concept of de-risking is transforming investment decisions across sectors. European and like-minded partners are looking for suppliers they can depend on over the long term, in jurisdictions where the rule of law holds, institutions function, and the political environment is predictable. Brazil fits that description and is increasingly being recognised as such, with implications well beyond commodity exports, reshaping conversations around critical minerals, clean technology supply chains, and industrial investment. 

Brazil is also working to redefine its global economic identity, with ambitions to become a green industrial hub alongside a supplier of commodities. The foundation is strong: a power matrix already dominated by renewables, globally significant biofuel production, and substantial reserves of critical minerals including nickel, lithium, rare earth elements, and uranium. The challenge ahead is adding processing capacity and infrastructure to capture more of the economic value domestically. For Finnish companies, this combination of geopolitical repositioning, structural reform, and industrial ambition creates an unusually favourable entry environment, and the timing is good. 

What has surprised you most about Finland so far? 

What has impressed me most is the remarkable harmony between innovation, social trust, and quality of life that Finland has managed to build. Coming from Brazil, a country that values human warmth and creativity deeply, I have been struck by how naturally those same qualities express themselves here, in a quieter, more understated register. 

Helsinki is also an extraordinary vantage point for the times we live in. The city concentrates an impressive density of expertise in security policy, geopolitics, and international affairs, with leading think tanks, research institutes, and practitioners in constant dialogue. For a diplomat, that is a remarkable intellectual environment that feeds directly into how we think about Brazil-Finland relations, because geopolitics and commerce are increasingly inseparable. 

What has also stayed with me is the quality of social trust. The transparency, civic responsibility, and respect for institutions create an environment where cooperation is genuinely easy and where international partners feel welcomed. And then there is Finland’s relationship with nature, not as something to be managed from a distance, but as part of daily life. The forest, the lakes, the rhythm of the seasons are not backdrop; they are culture, as Sibelius’ music has so well captured. It is a reminder that modernity and environmental stewardship can reinforce rather than undermine each other. 

Which aspects of Brazilian culture would you like to highlight for Finnish audiences? 

Brazil is often seen through the lens of its most visible culture exports: football, carnival, the Amazon. Those things are real and worth celebrating. But what I most want Finnish audiences to understand is something less obvious and, I would argue, more commercially and strategically important: how much we have in common. 

Yes, we do take pride in our diversity, in the rich African and Indigenous heritages, and in the immense contribution of immigrants from many parts of the world. Yet below this rich cultural diversity, perhaps to the surprise of many, Brazil is at its core a Western country. Our history and language, our legal traditions, our institutional frameworks, our democratic values, our approach to human rights and the rule of law, our cultural references, our intellectual formation: all of these place us firmly within what one might call the Global West. We are a country shaped by European settlement and by centuries of engagement with European ideas, philosophy, literature, and science, with African and Indigenous contributions woven into a distinctly Western-hemispheric civilisation. 

This matters practically. When a Finnish business executive sits down with a Brazilian counterpart, the cultural distance is far smaller than it might appear on a map. The frameworks are shared, the assumptions about how business is conducted, how contracts are honoured, how institutions function are recognisably familiar. Brazil offers something that many other large emerging markets do not: deep cultural proximity to Europe and to Western norms of governance and commerce. Fewer misunderstandings, shorter learning curves, stronger trust. Familiar territory. 

And then there is the quality that defines everyday Brazilian life, a talent for connection. Brazilians are open and genuinely curious about others, with a cultural instinct to close distances and make people feel at home. That warmth is habitual rather than performative, and it resonates here more than people might expect precisely because Finns share many of the same values, expressed in different forms. Resilience is another thread that runs through Brazilian culture: a capacity to face serious challenges without losing lightness, community, or the capacity for joy. Brazilians would instinctively understand the meaning of “sisu”. That is our way of being in the world, and one that I believe is immediately recognisable to Finland. 

Answers: Minister Braz Baracuhy, Chargé d’affaires a.i., Embassy of Brazil in Helsinki

Questions: Anne Hatanpää

Pictures: Embassy of Brazil in Helsinki, Unsplash