In September 2004, the Ministries of Defence from Poland, Denmark and German began to discuss the possibility to employ the HQ troops as part of a future military mission.
Few weeks later, representatives of the Corps joined the discussion, but the meeting surprisingly was not finalized with the particular decision. Ultimately, the HQ’s deployment in Afghanistan was officially announced during the ministerial meeting here in Szczecin in February 2005, between the Ministers of Defence from Poland - Jerzy Szmajdziński – and Germany – Dr. Peter Struck – as well as the Danish Under-Secretary of State for International Co-operation - Kristian Fischer – in the Headquarters, Multinational Corps Northeast, located in the Szczecin-based Baltic Barracks. Following an intense discussion, the Ministers received and approved the report of a ministerial working group on the corps and the tri-lateral co-operation and on the widened co-operation in the Baltic Sea region. They also discussed the approaching NATO-certification of the so-called "Full Operational Capability" (FOC), which the HQ will have to pass during the multinational exercise COMPACT EAGLE 2005 in late autumn. Moreover, The Polish Minister of National Defence, Jerzy Szmajdziński, declared that Poland is prepared to assume a leading role both in the support of the Corps and in a potential deployment of the headquarters into the mission area in Afghanistan. It was decided in the course of the tri-lateral talks to continue the preparations for an employment of the Corps-HQ as part of the ISAF-operation in Afghanistan. For all in HQ MNC NE engagement in Afghanistan is the natural and logical consequence of the HQ’s operational development.
