
Mikko Kinnunen is the Ambassador of Finland to the People’s Republic of China since October 2024. He is also serving as the non-resident Ambassador to Mongolia since April 2025.
Prior to his current position, Ambassador Kinnunen has, inter alia, worked as Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) during 2021-2022. He was Political Director (Director General for Political Affairs) at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland during 2019-2021 and Security Policy Director at the Political Department in 2013-2018.
Earlier, he has served as Finland’s first resident Ambassador to the Republic of Kazakhstan with a side accreditation to the Kyrgyz Republic (2009-2013). Kinnunen has worked in Finland’s Embassies in Moscow and Washington, D.C., as well at the Permanent Mission of Finland to the UN in New York.He has also served as Finland’s Ambassador for Strategic Communications as well as Ambassador for Countering Hybrid Threats. Mikko Kinnunen began his diplomatic career in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 1996. Prior to that he lived and worked in Hong Kong during the years of 1993-1996.
Ambassador Kinnunen holds a Master’s Degree in Social Sciences (Political History) from the University of Helsinki. He has studied as a post-graduate research student at the Keio University,Tokyo, as well as the Geneva Centre for Security Policy in Switzerland (GCSP, ITC 2003-2004). Kinnunen holds an honorary title of Professor (h.c.) from the Kazakhstan Humanistic Legal Innovation University, Semey (Semipalatinsk).
He is married and has a daughter.