Today's message to Baghdad is very clear: the UN Security Council resolution expresses the unity and determination of the entire international community to assume its collective responsibility.

Local media sarcastically named the new country "Solania". During Solana's term NATO reorganised its political and military structure and changed its basic strategies. By going to the foreign Ministry in the later years of González administration he avoided the political scandals of corruption and of the dirty war allegedly being fought against ETA that characterised its last years.

After serving in the Spanish government under Felipe González (1982–1995) and Secretary General of NATO (1995–1999) he was appointed the European Union's High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Secretary General of the Council of the European Union and Secretary-General of the Western European Union and held these posts from October 1999 until December 2009.