NATO’s Multinational Corps Northeast, headquartered in Szczecin, north west Poland, will be joined in 2016 by representatives of Greece, Norway and Canada.

Talks are in progress with Iceland.

The MNC NE is presently undergoing a transformation into an Alliance Very High Readiness Task Force (VJTF).

In order to receive the required NATO certificates, soldiers of the Szczecin-based Corps have been taking part in a series of exercises all across Europe since March 2015.

Lt. Colonel Marcin Walczak, MNC NE spokesperson, told Polish Radio that a similar tightly packed training schedule has been planned for this year. It includes, among others, participation in Brilliant Jump, Steadfast Cobalt and Anaconda’16 military exercises.

The MNC NE is intent on proving the operational command merit of the so-called NATO ‘spearhead’ before the June scheduled Alliance summit in Warsaw. Its ultimate ‘high readiness’ status is to be fully attained by the end of 2017, Walczak assured.

This special VJTF deployment status also requires enlarging the number of personnel to 400 soldiers and creating a new relevant infrastructure in the Baltic HQ.

Presently, the Multinational Corps Northeast in Szczecin is comprised of soldiers representing 20 Alliance member countries, including Poland. (ss/nh)