NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson continued his round of farewell
visits to NATO member and partner countries with a visit to Denmark
and Norway on 11 and 12 September 2003.
In Denmark, he met with Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and
with Minister of Defence Svend Aage Jensby, as well as with Her
Majesty Queen Margrethe II and members of the Parliament.
Speaking at a press conference, Lord Robertson paid tribute to murdered
Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh.
“
I was a friend and an admirer of a lovely person, and also a
highly accomplished and successful and professional politician. All
our
thoughts must be with her husband and her beloved sons," he
told journalists.
He added, "It’s an appalling act of violence and a huge
waste of talent and life and I express my sympathy with the people
of Sweden. The world, on September 11th again with a horrible irony,
has lost a very substantial contributor to a better and safer world.”
In Norway, the NATO Secretary General met with Prime Minister Kjell
Magne Bondevik, with Minister of Defence Kristin Krohn Devold, the
President of Parliament Jorgen A. Kosmo and members of the Foreign
Affairs Parliamentary Committee. He also had an audience with His
Majesty King Harald V.
Lord Robertson will step down as NATO Secretary General in December
this year.
