Austrian Presidency visit to the Stand by High Readiness Brigade

In the last week of February SHIRBRIG had the honor to host the visit of the new Austrian Presidency of the Steering Committee.

The Chairman Brigadier General Andreas Safranmueller together with his Policy Officer, Major Friedrich Scheiter, arrived in Copenhagen in the afternoon of Tuesday February 26, while the first official appointment was in the evening for a hosted dinner to which also a representative of the Danish Ministry of Defence was invited.

The Austrian Presidency with COMSHIRBRIG and his staff (SHIRBRIG photo)

Day two of the visit started with an office call with COMSHIRBRIG followed by a comprehensive visit to the entire SHIRBRIG Headquarters facilities and to all the branches presented to the Chairman by their respective chiefs.

After the commemorate picture was taken in front of the main HQ building a COMSHIRBRIG hosted lunch at the Officer Mess was offered at the guests.

The rest of the day was dedicated to briefings presented to the Chairman and related to the main topics of the Finance situation, the Intelligence procedures, the status of the ACB program and the SHIRBRIG participation to AMISOM.

Thursday February 28^th has been the day of the briefing presented by the Chairman to the entire SHIRBRIG staff followed by an intense and prolonged Q&A session.

In the afternoon the Presidency and BG Kochanowski where received at the Danish Ministry of Defense, by Mr. Kristian Fischer; the Deputy Permanent Secretary of State for Defense.

The last commitment of the Austrian Presidency for this first visit to Copenhagen and to SHIRBRIG, has been a dinner hosted by His Excellency Dr. Erwin Kubesch the new Austrian Ambassador in his residence.