During his visit, Lieutenant General Pfeffer gave us the opportunity for an interview. We wanted to know which impressions he will take with him to Potsdam after his visit in Szczecin. General Pfeffer underlined that MNC NE plays a very special role within the framework of collective defence in the north-eastern region and that, “as we are the Framework Nation in Lithuania, it is only natural that – despite having two different perspectives on the same topic – we are working in close consultation and coordination in order to jointly fulfil our mission.” He continued that “what I have experienced here was a distinctively positive picture: a professional headquarters that knows what it is doing; that knows what its mission is; that knows where it has to go and where the challenges are. I have thus received good information and good advice what we should pay attention to from a national point of view. At the same time, I realized that our picture and our assessments concerning challenges and need for action – how we are going to further optimize eFP but also the entire system of the new collective defence to which we contribute – are a good common understanding and that we know where we want to go together.”

Further development of multinationality and thus interoperability
The presence of the German-led Battle Group will have its first anniversary soon. In the course of this, General Pfeffer was also able to gain experience concerning the multinational cooperation within the eFP Battle Group. For him, multinationality is something that naturally belongs to deployments. He emphasized that the German contingents already bring a lot of experience in multinational cooperation with them. This is particularly true for the partners with whom they cooperate in the multinational Battle Group. This multinationality developed further and further over the years and, in the course of this, was increasingly consolidated at a high level from its relatively generic state. In this regard, he particularly highlighted that “we can therefore build on a very good foundation of multinational cooperation. From my point of view, we are also entering a new chapter through the multinational cooperation within the framework of this eFP Battle Group, because we are now also able to try out things within the context of training and exercises. We are not in an immediate operational environment there, which means that it is OK if something goes wrong sometimes. This is not possible in an operational context, which is why I consider eFP to be a catalyst for interoperability as it is an excellent opportunity to consolidate interoperability way beyond the standard we currently maintain as well as to try out new things. Also because we are in constant cooperation with our partners and thus successively drive forward really all aspects of multinationality – not just those required for a specific operation. This being the case, eFP is of particular importance to me when it comes to the further development of multinationality and by that interoperability.”