SCOTLAND can learn how to be “internationally relevant” and important on the world stage by taking inspiration from Vienna, Angus Robertson has said.

The Constitution Secretary released a book on the Austrian capital in October this year, after writing it after his time as an MP and before he entered Holyrood as an MSP earlier this year.

Vienna: The International Capital is a first-of-its-kind look at the city as a heart of diplomacy and influencing world events throughout history, from the Congress of Vienna to crucial Cold War talks between President John F Kennedy and Soviet Union Premier Nikita Khrushchev.

The book is currently being translated into German after “significant demand” and rights have been picked up for publication in the United States, Robertson told The National.

The SNP MSP worked in Vienna as a journalist between 1991 and 1999, is fluent in German and said he scoured through “most of what there is to find” in both German and English on the city while writing the book.

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With Vienna currently hosting talks around the Iran nuclear deal, Robertson said the pivotal role the city plays in diplomatic events could be emulated by an independent Scotland.

He said: “What Vienna and Austria show Scotland is that it is possible to be internationally relevant and important by working in the international community and being a proactive part of the community of nations.

“Vienna managed to redesign itself from being an old-style great power capital to being a contemporary centre of multilateral and progressive international priorities, most evident by its work trailblazing improved relations in the middle east and have continued to this day with the disarmament talks between the Soviet Union and United States and more recently the Iran nuclear talks.

“They have realised their potential for the capital city of a country which is exactly the same size as Scotland to be internationally relevant and important, and Scotland can do that as well.”

Vienna will be “forever associated” with Scotland, Robertson added, noting that there are a number of places named in honour of Scotland in the city because of monks, from Scotland and Ireland, who set up a monastery in the west of the capital.

He said: “When you go to Vienna people are struck by the number of places called Scottish something-or-other. So Scottish church (Schottenkirche), the Scottish Gate (Schottentor), the Scottish school, (Schottengymnasium), and Schottengasse, Scottish street or lane.”

A number of Irish and Scottish Catholics who were exiled to the continent in the 1600s also ended up in pivotal roles serving the House of Habsurg in both Austria and Spain, as well as playing a role in military history.

Robertson added that a number of generals and field marshals from the Austrian military have Scottish last names, such as Louden, and that the number of surnames with Scots heritage in Austria’s military history museum is “striking”.

The book weaves through different perspectives of visitors to Vienna throughout history, from travel writers and diarists, to spies and diplomats, which Robertson researched intensively during his break from being a parliamentarian.

Robertson added that the book isn’t a “dry” regurgitating of dates, but instead filled with “people, personality and impressions” of Vienna through the eyes of others.

The diaries kept by a delegation of Mauri convoys from New Zealand who spent three months in the city, and tales from 18th century English travel writer Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, were two of the more interesting finds, Robertson added.