`George Robertson has all the qualities to make a success of this important job. NATO could not be in better hands as the Alliance enters the new Millennium.' The glowing words of praise yesterday from the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, heralded Mr George Robertson's appointment as the next NATO secretary-general.
All the talk of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, apparently unhappy at being "steam rollered by the big boys," was forgotten.
The late favourite in the race - nominated by the British Government last week - had won the support of ambassadors during a short meeting of the North Atlantic Council.
Washington may at one time have preferred the German Defence Minister, Mr Rudolf Scharping, to counter criticism of an Anglo-American axis. And Belgium might have been irritated by the lack of support for its former Prime Minister, Mr Jean-Luc Dehaene.
But when Mr Scharping confirmed that he did not want to be considered, Mr Robertson was the obvious choice. With support from Germany, the US, Spain and France, smoothing the ruffled feathers of some member-states did not delay Mr Robertson's appointment for long.
Neutral observers could hardly deny his impressive performance during the Kosovo crisis. Mr Robertson displayed a commanding presence in office, and his calm insistence that the Allies were fighting a just cause in Kosovo earned him important friends in France, Spain, Germany and the US.
The immediate concerns facing Mr Blair upon Mr Robertson's departure to Brussels will be to choose his successor as Britain's Defence Secretary and then to fight a by-election, possibly a head-on battle with the Scottish National Party (SNP), in Mr Robertson's Hamilton South seat.
At this early stage, the safe money to replace Mr Robertson at Defence is on the Scottish Secretary, Dr John Reid, who has already served as Armed Forces Minister.
His term of office coincided with a highly sensitive episode, when the family of a Belfast teenager shot by two Scots Guards urged London not to agree to the soldiers' early release from prison.
He was also in office when the British government faced mounting demands from Conservative MPs to launch a full inquiry into the Chinook helicopter crash in 1994, which killed 25 RUC intelligence personnel and four RAF crew members.
Dr Reid's replacement, in what Downing Street has called a "mini-shuffle," is expected to be his deputy at the Scottish Office, Mr Brian Wilson.
The Scottish National Party will relish the opportunity to have another crack at Labour in Scotland. Within minutes of Mr Robertson's confirmation as NATO's next secretary-general, the Scottish Nationalists were confidently declaring a head-to-head battle with Labour in Hamilton South.
"It will clearly be a two-horse race," they said, citing this week's Glasgow Herald/System Three poll putting the SNP's support in Scotland at over 30 per cent.
The SNP has reason to be confident that it can take on Labour in Hamilton South. On the basis of the results in the European Parliament election, the swing needed for victory has dropped to nine per cent from 14 per cent in May, on the results of the elections to the Scottish Parliament.
At the very least, it may be said that Mr Robertson's announcement yesterday, that his job was to take the Alliance and make it "fit for the turbulence and troubles of the century ahead of us," hardly surprised anyone.
He will be called upon to work closely with his predecessor, Mr Solana, to encourage Europe to operate effectively in the EU's common foreign and security policy. Some observers suggest his main task will be to patch up the fissures in the Alliance which threatened to crack open during the Kosovo crisis. But, on the evidence of reports this week, he must also address NATO's relationship with Russia as the Alliance turns its gaze eastwards.
The spat between Britain's commander of Kfor, Lieutenant-General Sir Michael Jackson, and NATO's Supreme Commander, US General Wesley Clark, over General Clark's order to deploy troops to block the advance of Russian soldiers at Pristina airport could have brought NATO and Moscow to the point of political no return.
In the light of that disagreement, Mr Robertson will need to display his famed "defence diplomacy" when dealing not only with Moscow, but also with the military strategists within the NATO alliance.