Mikko Kinnunen to serve as Special Representative of OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden Ann Linde, who is the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in 2021, has appointed Ambassador Mikko Kinnunen to serve as the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group. Kinnunen will take up his duties on 1 August.
The Trilateral Contact Group (TCG), formed in 2014, is a permanent consultation process with an aim to facilitate implementation of the Minsk agreements and to support finding a diplomatic resolution to the conflict in Eastern Ukraine. The Trilateral Contact Group has four Working Groups focusing on security, political affairs, economic affairs and humanitarian issues.
Mikko Kinnunen is currently Political Director (Director General for Political Affairs) in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. He joined the Foreign Ministry in 1996 and has worked, among other things, as Director of the Unit for Security Policy and as Finland’s first Ambassador for Countering Hybrid Threats. In 2009–2013, Kinnunen served as Finland's Ambassador in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. He has also worked in the Embassies in Moscow and Washington DC and at the Permanent Mission of Finland to the United Nations in New York.
In the OSCE role, Kinnunen will succeed Swiss Ambassador Heidi Grau.
Inquiries:
Tove Wennergren, Spokesperson, Task Force of the Swedish OSCE 2021 Chairpersonship, tel. +46 (0) 8 405 41 61
Ambassador Mikko Kinnunen, tel. +358 295 351 820