The Ministerial Committee on Foreign and Security Policy (abbreviated hutva or utva, fi, hallituksen ulko- ja turvallisuuspoliittinen ministerivaliokunta) is one of the four ministerial committees of the

Finnish Government sv, Finlands statsråd , border = , image = File:Finnish Government logo.png , image_size = 250 , caption = , date = , state = Republic of Finland , polity = , coun ...

, established by statute since 2000. The task of the committee is to handle matters related to Finland's foreign and security policy, as well as matters of internal security and

total defence Total defence is a defence policy combining and extending the concept of military defence and civil defence. It has been adopted by several countries: for example Austria, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Russia, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, L ...

when they are related to foreign and security policy. Nowadays it meets practically always jointly with the

President of Finland The president of the Republic of Finland ( fi, Suomen tasavallan presidentti; sv, Republiken Finlands president) is the head of state of Finland. Under the Constitution of Finland, executive power is vested in the Finnish Government and the p ...

, so it is often referred to as tp-utva, referring to the President of the Republic ("tp", fi, tasavallan presidentti) and the ministerial committee itself ("utva"). The committee is chaired by the prime minister. The other members are the

minister of foreign affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between cou ...

, the

minister of defence A defence minister or minister of defence is a Cabinet (government), cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from coun ...

, and up to four other ministers appointed by the government. If the government has a so-called second minister in the

Ministry for Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateralism, bilateral, and multilateralism, multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citi ...

, this minister is also a member of the committee. In addition , the

minister of the interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

and other ministers participate in the committee if issues related to their areas of activity are being discussed.

References

{{Finland-stub Government of Finland