Hynek Kmoníček

Hynek Kmoníček (born 22 October 1962) is a Czech diplomat and the current Czech Ambassador to Vietnam. Previously, Kmoníček served as foreign policy advisor of the President Miloš Zeman, and held ambassadorial posts including Czech Permanent representative to the United Nations in New York and subsequently as Ambassador to India, Australia, the United States, and Vietnam.

Early life and education Kmoníček was born in Pardubice, then Czechoslovakia, in 1962. At Hebrew University, his specialization was medieval Islamic mysticism. His graduation thesis was entitled "Al-Miraj of Abu Yazid al-Bistami". His political science graduation paper was titled "Historical development of Saudi-American relations from the beginning to the JFK era."

Career Kmoníček started his diplomatic career in 1995 as a desk officer at the Middle East Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He became director of this Department in 1997.

In 2009, he was appointed to the position of Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal, Consular, and Current Political Issues. After his removal from the position of Deputy Foreign Minister in July 2010, Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg nominated him for the post of Czech Ambassador in Australia, Schwarzenberg was reported to have commented that if possible, he would rather have sent Kmoníček to Mars.

A longtime friend of President Milos Zeman, Kmoníček joined the Presidential Office on 28 March 2013 as Director of the Foreign Department with primary responsibility for the President's policy on foreign affairs. In 2015, he was credited by the US Ambassador Andrew Schapiro as having resolved a diplomatic dispute between Schapiro and Zeman. He finished his term in this post in August 2022, and was subsequently appointed as the Czech Ambassador to Vietnam.

Since 2015 he has been writing about foreign affairs for the Czech newspaper MF Dnes as an external contributor.

Personal life

Kmoníček's personal interests include cooking and collecting documentary movies, world music and hot sauces from around the world. He also writes reviews for art, culture and academic journals worldwide. In a profile in August 2018 for CBS News, his house in Washington DC was shown to be decorated with trophies from various animals he had killed around the world as part of his diplomatic activities.

In 2015, a Czech scientist who discovered a new species of beetle named it after Kmoníček as a token of a gratitude for assistance he had provided as ambassador.