The Ministerial Committee on Foreign and Security Policy (abbreviated hutva or utva, ) is one of the four

ministerial committee A ministerial committee is a committee consisting of ministers of various Portfolio (government), government portfolios. A joint ministerial committee usually refers to committee consisting of ministers from different governments. Australia Th ...

s of the

Finnish Government The Finnish Government (; ; ) is the executive branch and cabinet of Finland, which directs the politics of Finland and is the main source of legislation proposed to the Parliament. The Government has collective ministerial responsibility an ...

, 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 entails a high level of readiness of both the state and its society to defend itself in cases of dangers and catastrophes such as war, ...

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 (; ) is the head of state of Finland. The incumbent president is Alexander Stubb, since 1 March 2024. He was elected president for the first time in 2024 Finnish presidential election, 2024. The presi ...

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

minister of foreign affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...

, the

minister of defence A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divid ...

, 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, 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

Government of Finland {{Finland-gov-stub