The first nationalist First Minister, Salmond's government made attempts to push legislation for a referendum on Independence, however, the SNP failed to obtain support from other parties and withdrew the draft bill.

Salmond was committed to tackling the climate crisis through the Partnership Agreement with the Maldives, one of the most exposed countries to the consequences of rising sea levels.

As constitutional matters remain reserved to the British Government, Prime Minister David Cameron agreed to grant the powers to hold a referendum known as the Edinburgh Agreement.

[2] With the support of the Greens, Salmond was elected by the Scottish Parliament as First Minister on 16 May 2007, and was sworn in the following day after receiving the Royal Warrant from the Queen and taking the official oath of allegiance before judges at the Court of Session.

[4] Salmond appointed SNP Depute Leader Nicola Sturgeon as Deputy First Minister of Scotland, as well as, the role of Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing.

"[9] Salmond issued a statement regarding the attacks in Edinburgh, calling for "the need for vigilance and unity against the forces of terror and rightly praised the work of the emergency services".

[10] By the evening of 30 June, Salmond had attended an online conference discussion with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Brown and his governmental cabinet.

After he was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer, he was released from prison on compassionate grounds on 20 August 2009, having served 8½ years of a life sentence.

The Scottish Governments decision was called "absolutely wrong" by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,[15] and "an outrage" and a "caving in" by Senator Frank Lautenberg.

[16] President Barack Obama denounced the decision and Attorney General Eric Holder said that there was "no justification for releasing this convicted terrorist whose actions took the lives of 270 individuals.

"[18] FBI director Robert Mueller, who had been a lead investigator in the 1988 bombing, was "outraged at [the] decision, blithely defended on the grounds of 'compassion'" and called it "as inexplicable as it is detrimental to the cause of justice" in an open letter to MacAskill.

[19][20] Salmond launched A National Conversation on 14 August 2007 which consisted of a 59-page white paper, titled Choosing Scotland's Future, and a website.

[25] On 1 May 2009, Salmond activated the Scottish Government Resilience Room (SGoRR) in response to the outbreak of swine flu in the country, with the meeting attended by senior governmental official, police and medics who would be in charge of any emergency control measures.

[30] At a speech at the SNP National Conference, Salmond claimed that his spending plans were underpinned on the belief that "investment in education, in jobs and in the industries of today and tomorrow will place us in the best position for recovery".

[30] Salmond was highly critical of the UK Government during a speech at Georgetown University in Washington DC, the capital of the United States.

[31] A newspaper investigation in 2009 revealed that Salmond had claimed as expenses from the UK parliament "up to £400 per month in food without producing receipts, even after becoming First Minister and spending little time at Westminster".

[33] In 2009, Salmond announced plans for legislation which would see the state owned Scottish Water granted new authority which would allow them to use vast landbank and pipe network for renewable energy projects.

It was estimated that Scottish Water could have generated £300 million in additional revenue by utilising 80,000 acres of land and vast pipe network for renewable energy projects.

Salmond said it was unacceptable to Scotland as well as to the SNP for the broadcasters to exclude the party that formed the Scottish Government and was leading in Westminster election polls.

[45] Salmond further pledged to continue the freeze of council tax across Scotland in order to establish a "social wage", as well as driving work forward to deliver the governments commitment to the abolition of bridge tolls, free concessionary travel, prescription charges and personal care.

Salmond claimed that there "was a growing body of evidence pointing to a slow down in UK economy and thus the need for urgent action to support the recovery".

[49] Salmond called for the UK Government to immediately focus on capital investment, greater access to finance for businesses and enhanced consumer confidence by prioritising growth and employment security.

[32] The sequence in which these events occurred was acknowledged by the Scottish Government after 7 months, during which they initially maintained that they had no record of when Salmond had repaid the money.

The relationship turned fractious when in 2015, the UK Supreme Court rejected Trump's bid to stop an offshore wind farm being built close to one of his two golf resorts in Scotland.

[57] In January 2016, Salmond, prompted by broadcasting colleague Iain Dale, called Trump a "chicken" for refusing to appear on his LBC talk show, which had then been recently launched.

While constitutional matters are reserved to the UK Government, Prime Minister David Cameron said he wouldn't stop a referendum from happening.

His speculation was highly criticised and doubted by Mariano Rajoy, Prime Minister of Spain, who said there would be "no automatic welcome for an independent Scotland", ultimately blocking proposals announced by Salmond.

Rajoy published a statement citing that he would hope that UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, would take a similar stance in regards to Catalan separation from Spain.

[75] As a result, Salmond undertook a series of engagements in China in order for the Scottish Government to explore enhanced trading opportunities.

[75] Salmond discussed renewable energy, healthcare, water management and infrastructure with Vice Premier of China, Li Keqiang.