20 Quotes by Lord Robertson

And I was asked if I would come and help with the recovery of this great British company, Cable and Wireless, and I'm delighted to become part of the new and very talented management that have been brought in to that company as well.

In sum, as we enter the 21st century, the Euro-Atlantic community - North America and Europe together - has to face some tough challenges when it comes to improving our capability.

For years, we have heard warnings that Europe needs to contribute more to NATO's capability.

You've got to be able to act when it's necessary to act. And you've got to be able to act where the threat is.

But we acted pre-emptively in Kosovo in 1999 to stop Milosevic from doing what he was doing and increasingly doing the ethnic cleansing in a systematic way.

What I will remember most from my time in NATO is meeting children in the countries where I've gone to, to Moscow and to Kiev, I've met school children.

And most countries are now reducing the number of conscripts and increasing the professionals that are available because they're available on short notice.

Well, if the NATO countries don't make more of their troops usable and don't get the equipment to get them fast where the action is, then the organisation will suffer and will increasingly become irrelevant.

I also said that we wanted to learn the lesson of the Balkans to win not the just the military campaign about Kosovo, but to win the peace as well.