E&OE
6 November 2008
Interview - Steve Price, 2UE
Subject: US election; Bali bombers
STEVE PRICE: Remarkable speech by Barack Obama yesterday, and indeed the speech by John McCain in conceding was pretty good as well. What's it going to mean for Australia? I think, from our point of view, we've now seen the euphoria of the United States, and the President-elect Barack Obama is quickly going to get down to work today, but, from a foreign policy point of view, does it change much for Australia?
Stephen Smith is our Foreign Minister. He's on the line. Thanks for your time.
STEPHEN SMITH: Good morning Steve.
PRICE: Have you ever met him?
SMITH: Ah no I haven't. I've met the Vice President-elect Joe Biden, but I haven't met President-elect Obama.
PRICE: What did you make of his speech yesterday?
SMITH: I saw grabs of it. But everyone's told me that I've got to get a tape of the full thing and watch it from start to finish because it was terrific. And the same comment was made about McCain's concession speech. And I saw grabs of that. But I think the general consensus is that they were two of the, you know, the all time great speeches.
I thought, McCain I think covered himself with great distinction and courage in the course of the campaign, and yesterday really sort of, as a defeated candidate, covered himself I think with real credit.
PRICE: Barack Obama's made it clear the US will pull out US combat troops from Iraq within 16 months, and he will start to boost the numbers in Afghanistan. Is that the main two foreign policy impacts on us of his election?
SMITH: Well, I think from Australia's national interest perspective, I think the first point is the alliance between Australia and the United States continues. It's served us well for over 50 years - served both countries well for over 50 years. And it transcends governments here and administrations there. So, Labor or Liberal Governments here; Republican or Democrat administrations in the United States.
And, over the years we've had Labor Governments here working with Democrat or Republican administrations, and Liberal Governments here working with Republican and Democrat administrations. So it transcends the government. So the strength of the alliance will continue. There will be a bit of bedding down in terms of the appointment of the key positions - the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of Defence.
But in the first half of next year we'd expect that I'd meet my counterpart, our Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon would meet his counterpart. And, after that sort of getting to know each other, the business of the alliance will continue.
The second point - which I think is worth making in our national interest - is just the ongoing importance of engagement by the United States in the Asia Pacific region; in our region. And that's even more important now as political and economic and strategic influence shifts to the Asia Pacific region, with the rise of China and the rise of India. So, the ongoing engagement with the US is very important.
Afghanistan that you ask about; we very strongly support the sentiment that an enhanced commitment is required in Afghanistan, not just a military commitment, but also a civilian capacity building or nation building commitment. We need to try and get peace and security in Afghanistan, but we also need to try and help the Afghans manage their own affairs so the commitment that Senator Obama made in the course of the campaign for enhanced commitment, we strongly support.
We're the largest non-NATO contributor. We're not contemplating any increase in our military contribution, but we do think that there's a need for an enhanced commitment from the United States, and from the international community, both in a peace and security sense, but also in a civilian capacity or nation building sense.
PRICE: You've been in government a year in two weeks and a couple of days; what is our commitment now in Iraq and what would it likely be in 16 months time?
SMITH: Well we withdrew our over-watch battle group - the five to 600 troops that we had there. That was an election commitment; and we did that in a very professional way in cooperation with the Bush Administration, and the Iraqi Government. I'd just make this point, in passing - the Bush Administration of course will be there until 20 January, so we'll continue to work positively and constructively with them.
We've got logistical and support arrangements for the Middle East, in and around Iraq; and they're both naval frigate and also support, support staff. We're not contemplating any change to those arrangements - some of which have been in place for a long time, from the first Gulf War. We'll obviously carefully examine what the new administration does in terms of any draw-down in Iraq. but our primary focus - and we think the primary focus of the United States and the international community - needs to be Afghanistan, and that's why we welcome the comments and the commitments that President-elect Obama made in the course of the election campaign.
PRICE: Do you expect the US engagement with China to change?
SMITH: Well I think that's very important. As chance would have - I'm in Perth at the moment - and as chance would have it yesterday in Perth I hosted a visit by Mr Zhou who's a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo; so he's in the, if you like, the nine most important political leadership group in China. And one of the conversations I had with him was the need for there to be a very good positive and constructive relationship between China and the United States.
We describe this century as the, you know, the Asia Pacific century, because that's what all the portents are heading to with the rise of China, the rise or India, and also in the last decade and a half, the large rise of the ASEAN nations and ASEAN economies combined.
So, having a positive and constructive relationship between the United States and China is very very important. And I made the point to Mr Zhou that Australia wants to, has and wants to have a good relationship with the significant or the great powers - United States, China, Japan, Indonesia in our area, Russia is another, is another great power - we want to have good relations with all those countries. But it's just as important, if not more important in international community sense, for those nations to have good relations one to the other. So the relationship between China and the United States is very very important, and we will actively and positively encourage that.
PRICE: Just before I let you go, the execution of the Bali bombers; would you expect as Foreign Minister to be told before that happens?
SMITH: No, the tradition with the Indonesian authorities is they advise people after the event. We've been proceeding on the same basis as the media and the public have, which is the, the announcement by the Attorney General - well, towards the end of April - that the executions could be expected in the course of early November. I've avoided a running commentary on it Steve, because I just think that every time the thing is mentioned one of the recipients of the ongoing commentary are the families of the victims, and it's a terrible reminder. So, once we're advised that the executions have taken place - and we're expecting that to occur, as I say, in the course of early November - then obviously I'll make some remarks at the time.
And in the meantime, we are concerned of possible reprisals and we are concerned about security. So we're taking, we've taken all the necessary precautions so far as our embassy in Jakarta and our mission in Bali is concerned. You would have seen the Indonesians have taken additional security precautions as well. And we continue to urge Australians to consider the advice that we give in our travel advisory before they contemplate travel to Indonesia or Bali.
PRICE: Good on you, and nice to speak to you. Thanks for your time.
SMITH: Thanks Steve. Thanks very much.
PRICE: Stephen Smith there, the Foreign Minister.
[Ends]
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