The Parliamentary State Secretary of German Ministry of Defence Mr Christian Schmidt and the Undersecretary of State of Polish Ministry of Defence Mr Zbigniew Włosowicz as heads of delegations paid a visit to Headquarters Multinational Corps Northeast (MNC NE) on 28 June 2011.
The Parliamentary State Secretary of German Ministry of Defence (MoD) Mr Christian Schmidt was assisted by the Military Advisor Lieutenant Colonel (GS) Christian Schmidt, Branch Chief MoD German Armed Forces Staff – Foreign Affairs Navy Commander Marc Gieseler, member of the German Paliament Mr Jürgen Hardt and Desk Officer to Parliamentary State Secretary Mrs Dóra Kovács, whereas the Undersecretary Mr Zbigniew Włosowicz was assisted by the Director of the International Security Police of Polish Ministry of Defence Mr Marcin Kaźmierski, Head of Office Colonel Tomasz Kalina, Lieutenant Colonel Mariusz Jurek from the Department for Military Foreign Affairs, German Defence Attaché accredited to Poland Colonel (GS) Klaus-Peter Kiser and member of the Cabinet Under Secretary First Lieutenant Magdalena Sekieta. 
The honourable guests were warmly welcomed and hosted by the MNC NE Commander Lieutenant General Rainer Korff as well as his Deputy Major General Ryszard Sorokosz and Chief of Staff Brigadier General Morten Danielsson.
During the briefing delivered by Major Michał Leszczyński from G5 Staff Division, the visitors were presented with facts concerning the Corps’ history, structure, missions and role of MNC NE in NATO and the region as well as the MNC NE mission in Afghanistan but also current and future challenges and plans. After a question-and-answer period, both State Secretaries had a chance to talk more on the Corps’ issues during the meeting with the MNC NE Commander.
“We learned this is the Corps which deals with the perspective of the future,” Mr Christian Schmidt said after the briefing part of the visit. "Within the new NATO Command Structure, agreed on last month, multinational corps will take over more tasks. We were discussing how to manage those challenges," explained Mr Włosowicz. Talking about the leadership of the Corps and the Corps’ itself, Mr Schmidt said:“They have a lot of intention of playing ‘in the League’ so we are very confident, together with my Polish colleague, that we, as Framework Nations, have an asset, here, in Szczecin." Mr Włosowicz was also very fond of the visit to the Corps:"What I have seen in Szczecin has deeply impressed me. We can be really proud of this Corps. It is a proof that together with our Allies, shoulder to shoulder, we are ready to undertake even the most difficult tasks, like those in Afghanistan," he said.
Apart from a vital interest in the Corps’ issues, both delegations used the opportunity to conduct bilateral talks in Baltic Barracks. “We had today also the intention to prepare cooperation during the Polish Presidency of European Union,” the German guest admitted, underlining full support from the German side to the Polish side as well as close cooperation in the area of common foreign security policy.
