Multinational Corps Northeast

The Danish Ambassador to Poland His Excellency Thomas Østrup Møller, assisted by Defence Attaché Colonel Carsten Rasmussen, paid a visit to Headquarters Multinational Corps Northeast (HQ MNC NE) on 6 December 2010.

After the official Guard of Honour, which was formed to welcome the honourable guests, the Ambassador had a meeting with the Commander of the Multinational Corps Northeast Lieutenant General Rainer Korff, whereas the Defence Attaché met the MNC NE Chief of Staff Brigadier General Morten Danielsson. Afterwards, the honourable guests listened to a briefing on the Multinational Corps Northeast, during which the Corps’ tasks, history and recently accomplished mission in Afghanistan were presented to them. “I heard quite a lot of good about the Corps. My expectations were quite high but they have been fulfilled,” said the Ambassador after the briefing. Even though it was his first visit to the HQ, the Ambassador had already had some relations to the Corps: “I actually worked with the HQ before because I worked in the Security Policy Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so actually one of my first briefs was on this particular Corps just established back in 1999,” he explained. “But I did not get a chance to visit the Corps so now, after 11 years, I am here,” His Excellency Thomas Østrup Møller said with a smile.
 
The honourable guest found the briefing interesting underlining the Corps’ relations to the host city of Szczecin. “What I find very good is the outreach to the local community, you are really an integral part of Szczecin, that is very impressive and you should maintain that,” he said.
 
An important part of the Ambassador’s visit to HQ was meeting Danish staff serving at Baltic Barracks. “I am at their disposal if they have any questions and I intend to brief them on how the world looks from my position in Warsaw,” he stressed.
 
As a matter of fact, the Ambassador’s visit to the HQ coincided with annual celebrations of Jule-glögg. As the Ambassador admitted, it was not a coincidence as he intended to take part in the event: “I love Jule-glögg! It is a very traditional thing to have Jule-glögg in December,” he said. As H.E. Møller also mentioned, a similar Danish tradition is followed at the Danish Embassy in Warsaw and the whole staff is looking forward to it every year.
 
Jule-glögg is obviously not the only way to promote Danish culture in Poland. On the contrary, the Danish Embassy is conducting a number of projects. "We work in the culture field to promote for example Danish film; we have had a Danish film festival. There is this particular Danish dogma film school and we had a couple of those films screened in Warsaw this autumn. Another thing we are very committed to is to promote biking. That is something very Danish, so we find various Danish angles to promote.”