On May 20th, the Baltic Defence College was honoured by the visit of Cdr Bruno J. Gerrits, the Netherlands Defence Attaché for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and his designated successor, Cdr Hans de Brouwer.

Cdr Gerrits is taking a new position in summer and was travelling in the Baltic States to bid farewell to the officials, colleagues and friends in the region as well as to introduce his successor Cdr de Brouwer. On this ocassion, Commandant of the Baltic Defence College Brigadier General Gundars Ảbols awarded Cdr Gerrits with the BALTDEFCOL Medal of Merit (Silver Class) for his outstanding contribution to the development of the school. His sustained and effective effort to ensure contribution of high quality guest lecturers from the Netherlands to the BALTDEFCOL courses were highly appreciated. The BALTDEFCOL leadership also thanked Cdr Gerrits for his invaluable support in securing funding of the Netherlands for expanding research library collections and improving educational infrastructure of the College. During the meeting, future co-operation plans were discussed, including arrangements necessary to launch the Annual Prince Mauritz Strategic Studies Scholarship in 2009 and to establish intensive links with the Netherlands Defence Academy. It is planned that Brig Gen Ảbols will visit the Netherlands in autumn 2008.