The Estonian Permanent Representative to NATO His Excellency Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Jüri Luik, the Estonian Ambassador to Poland His Excellency Taavi Toom, the Estonian Defence Attaché to Poland Colonel Albert Helme, the Estonian Defence Attaché to Germany Lieutenant Colonel Kristjan Moora and the Estonian Deputy Defence Counsellor to NATO Mr Andreas Vosman paid a visit to the Headquarters Multinational Corps Northeast (HQ MNC NE) on 29 October 2010.
The briefing on the Multinational Corps Northeast delivered by Lieutenant Colonel (GS) Volker Quante informed the guests about the Corps’ history, organisation and mission. The Estonian delegation discussed with the MNC NE Commander, the MNC NE Chief of Staff, Estonian members of the Headquarters as well as Chiefs of Headquarters’ Divisions and Senior National Officers the recently accomplished mission in Afghanistan and lessons learned drawn from it. “Afghanistan is one of the most important topics discussed in NATO headquarters so I think I can go back to Brussels with some very good insights and interesting ideas. Obviously I would like to raise my head to all those brave men and women in this Headquarters who were stationed in Afghanistan and who I believe did a superb job,” His Excellency Ambassador Jüri Luik said.
Among the reasons for visiting Baltic Barracks was also a very important discussion on the issues of the NATO command structure reform, “which are I think at the moment, when the NATO Lisbon summit is being prepared, of utmost importance to all of us,” as His Excellency Ambassador Jüri Luik stressed. 
The Estonian delegation was also very much interested in the performance of Estonian representatives serving at the Headquarters: “your Headquarters is of great interest to us; that is reflected by the fact that we have several officers here. Of course, we are very proud of them and we think they are giving a good contribution. Finally, it is for you to say how you judge them but our assessment of their role is very positive,” His Excellency Ambassador Jüri Luik said. Details concerning the Estonian representation at the Headquarters and other national issues were discussed after the briefing within the Estonian circle.
Estonia joined Multinational Corps Northeast in 2004; prior to that several liaison officers cooperated with the Headquarters within the Partnership for Peace Office. Currently, Estonian officers and non-commissioned officers form the most numerous group among the Corps’ Participating States, after the Framework Nations, i.e. Demark, Germany and Poland.
“All in all, we go back with better understanding of what the Corps does, where does it fit into NATO Force Structure and what are the future perspectives of the headquarters. And I believe your future is bright,” said His Excellency Ambassador Jüri Luik after the briefing. ”The impressions are very positive, the officer corps is very professional, the people are very nice, the Szczecin town, although I have not had a lot of time to look around, leaves a very good impression,” he summarized.
