Intrepid web reporters Olav and David before their encounter with the NATO Secretary-General

Monday afternoon was a rather unusual one for me and my colleague Olav Gade. Finally, after months of waiting we had a chance to interview Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

I have driven past NATO HQ in Brussels many times, but I had never actually been inside. The building began life as a temporary military structure in the late 1940’s and has been progressively extended since. Every country has a special wing so it feels a bit like a hospital. The building is low and spread out – architecturally striking it certainly is not but the famous NATO symbol at the front and the accompanying flags give it a certain presence and a sense of history.

The NATO press staff who accompanied us to Mr Rasmussen’s office and spoke to us as we waited for him were the very height of professionalism and courtesy. More than that, they were really relaxed and informal. I was thankful for that as I must confess to some nerves prior to the interview. I think it was more so for Olav, as he is Danish and the man we were about the meet had been his Prime Minister for 7 years. I had been half expecting saluting officers, nothing could have been further from the truth.

In all the answers I was struck by how carefully he weighed his words

Mr Rasmussen greeted us with a friendly smile and a strong handshake. His office was large but quite spartan, with a large map of Afghanistan on his desk. We sat on comfy sofas and began our questions while our photographer Pietro took some shots.

In all the answers I was struck by how carefully he weighed his words. They were very precise, no causal asides or loose remarks. He also gave them with great conviction. He made and kept eye contact – giving you the impression that you were the most important person at that moment – I’ve noticed that all successful international figures share the same quality. Let’s call it focus.

I must say, it is quite a heady experience to sit in the office of the head of the world’s largest military alliance and ask him questions about global geo-politics. Geographically, at least, our questions ranged from Brussels to Moscow via Washington and Kabul. I was quite surprised that he was so certain that the Obama Administration would send more troops – I had expected more circumspection, although he did say it was too early to talk about numbers. The part on Russia was also quite interesting I thought. He talked about common security interests, especially Afghanistan “as the Russians know well”.
 
His main message on Afghanistan is that building up the Afghan army, police, and security forces is the best way forward. He also said that parts of the country would be able to govern themselves by next year.

As we finished he engaged Olav in some friendly banter in Danish – asking him how long we had worked at the Parliament, which was a nice touch. He seems like a good bloke.

When I got home I saw on the BBC the grim sight of a Union Jack draped coffin being carried off a plane, the latest victim of the conflict. The Afghans have suffered most of all of course – and I think we owe it to them to finish what we have started and not to hand over the country to fanatics and lunatics who will terrorise them. An imperfect government (and lets face it which one isn’t) is preferable to Taliban terror.