SECURITY OF THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN REGION FURTHER STRENGTHENED
Text: HQ MND-C | 21:55 May 4, 2022The Headquarters Multinational Division Centre (HQ MND-C) in Székesfehérvár, Hungary has reached a new level of progress, gaining the status of International Military Headquarters and becoming part of NATO Force Structure on 03 May 2022, based on the Activation Document issued by the North Atlantic Council in Brussels.
In the Central European region, there was no permanent allied command to lead reinforcement and rear area operations or NATO collective defence and crisis management tasks, which would have been able to respond to the changing security environment in a way that also contribute to the Alliance's deterrence and defence efforts. To counter this shortcoming, the Government of Hungary, together with its regional partners, has decided to establish Headquarters Multinational Division Centre and in the medium term, until 2032, a complete division under the command of the headquarters.
Following the announcement of the Hungarian initiative in 2018, Minister of Defense of Hungary, Tibor Benkő and Croatian Minister of Defense, Damir Krsticevic jointly signed a letter in October 2019, informing NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to offer the soon-to-be established headquarters to NATO Force Structure.
As the result of the Hungarian-Croatian inter-ministerial memorandum of understanding on the establishment of the division headquarters in March 2020, the headquarters was established as an international military organization. Its first commander became Major General Denis Tretinjak from Croatia.
Currently, in addition to Hungary and Croatia, Slovakia also participates in the HQ MND-C as a framework nation, Poland, as a participating nation, assists the work of the Command, in addition, Germany, Italy, Romania, Slovenia and Türkiye assured the Command of their intention to participate.
