Commander NATO JFC Brunssum, Gen. Marchiò, on his first visit to Nato “enhanced Forward Presence” (eFP) multinational Battlegroup in the Baltic Countries and Command Structure in Poland
The first official trip of the newly appointed Commander Nato Joint Force Command (JFC)- Brunssum (NL), Gen. Riccardo Marchiò, has concluded with his visit to the Multinational Battlegroup in Estonia. Previously, Gen. Marchiò visited the Baltic countries and Polish operational and command structures.
During his visits to the Battlegroups deployed in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia under German, Canadian an UK leadership, respectively, Gen. Marchiò met with the Ministers of Defence and Chiefs of Defence Staff of the three Baltic countries.
Commander JFS underscored the crucial role of the Battlegroups for NATO Enhanced Forward Presence, saying that "…having deployed 4 Battlegroups in 4 nations with the contribution of 19 countries is a clear sign of NATO's solidarity and cohesion in responding to the security requirements of all Member States".
The successful integration of the Battlegroups in the host countries is mainly due to the work of the NATO Force Integration Units (NFIUs), lean joint structures which play an important liaison role.
As regards the multinational commands in Poland, Gen. Marchiò has visited for the first time the Multinational Corps North-East (MNC-NE), located in Szczecin, and Multinational Division North-East (MND-NE), located in Elblag.
During is visit to Poland, Gen. Marchiò has met with the Polish Minister of Defence, Mariusz Blaszczak, and Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Leszek Surawski. He thanked them for Poland's commitment within NATO, and for its critical role in providing the whole set of resources agreed upon during NATO Wales and Warsaw Summits.
