Tag: white paper

Revealed Part 2 – The Scottish Government and NATO’s Communications

Earlier this month on the blog I published my FOI return surrounding the Scottish Government and NATO’s communications.

The returns detailed the following:

  • Only one contact took place between 2007 and 2014
  • The contact was Scottish Government officials visiting NATO HQ in Brussels with UK Government Officials on 8 June 2013
  • The meeting was arranged by the UK Government’s Foriegn and Commonwealth Office following a request via a phone call from the Scottish Government
  • The meeting’s discussion were to be treated as confidential as are all NATO-UK Government meetings
  • However, five months later the Scottish Government’s white paper on independence (Scotland’s Future) stated, “Yes. The Scottish Government has opened contact with NATO regarding an independent Scotland’s membership of the organisation” (Scotland’s Future: 2013. pg. 466)

I was interested in regards to the phone call between someone in the Scottish and British governments to organise this meeting. Following the earlier FOI I placed a subsequent one specifically on the phone call.

Here is what was disclosed to me:

 

FOI NATO 1/2
 
 
FOI NATO (2/2)

As you see then the Scottish Government does not hold any information regarding this phone call. This phone call could have been where we began to chart the start of an independent Scotland’s defence policy, it is important historically.