Interview - Sky News

Subjects: US vice-presidential nomination, Pakistan, Australian kidnapped in Somalia

TERRY WILLESEE: And a short time ago, SKY News' political reporter, Ashley Gillon spoke to the Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith, to get his thoughts on the race for the White House.

ASHLEY GILLON: Minister, thank you for your time. All eyes are on the Democratic Convention in Denver. Over the past week we've seen Barack Obama try to boost his foreign policy credentials by appointing Joe Biden as his BP nominee.

What do you know about Joe Biden? And do you think adding him to the ticket will be a strength for Obama?

STEPHEN SMITH: Well, a lot of those issues, we of course, just leave to the American voting public to choose a President. We will obviously work with whoever emerges in the new administration. I've met Senator Biden. He chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. When I was in Washington in January, he was one of the people I saw. But he's got a long standing interest and standing in foreign affairs, so if there's an Obama Presidency and he's a Vice-President, then we will obviously happily work very closely with him. But of course we say the same thing about Senator McCain and we, of course, await to see who his nominee for Vice-President will be as well.

GILLON: As an observer of US politics though, how important do you think these - this convention stage is to the campaign?

SMITH: Well there was a point in the cycle where it looked as though there might actually be a real contest of the democrat convention in the first time in 40-odd years. With my tongue very firmly in my cheek, I can confidently predict an Obama/Biden ticket. But, it'll very much now be a showcase with the candidate having the chance to present his credentials and that forms part of the democratic process in the United States.

GILLON: Well moving on to Pakistan, the ruling Coalition there is in strife with the former Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif splitting from the party. That certainly isn't the sort of stability you were calling for after the resignation of Pervez and Sharif.

SMITH: Well this is still the Pakistani political system going through its processes. It's much better than having a President who has been determined by military intervention. So, we continue to welcome the fact that Pakistan is going through its democratic processes and there'll be an electoral college formed of national and regional parliamentarians to choose their new President on 6 September. It looks like that'll be a contest and that's fine in a democratic system, but what we do want to see is the political stability so that Pakistan can start to address the very serious economic, social and security issues that confront it.

GILLON: If this instability continues though, what sort of risks does it pose to the war on terror, and in particular, looking at Afghanistan?

SMITH: Well we don't want political instability in Pakistan. We want them to focus on those serious issues. The Afghanistan/Pakistan border is now the hot bed of international terrorism and deleterious consequences on that border are very significant for the 1100 troops we have in Afghanistan. So, we have two interests: one is the safety and security of our troops there in Southern Afghanistan doing difficult and dangerous work; and secondly what's occurring on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border is not just an issue between those two nations, but it has regional and international implications which is why we've been saying we are ready and willing to assist Pakistan in helping it resolve some of these issues.

GILLON: Well overnight, Iraq's Prime Minister has confirmed a 2011 deadline for the withdrawal of foreign troops from that country. Do you think that's realistic?

SMITH: Well I've seen those reports. I think we should wait until we see, if you like, the formal announcement of the so called Status of Forces Agreement between Iraq and the United States.

The United Nations mandate concludes at the end of this year and so what Iraq and the United States have been doing for some time is now sitting down, trying to work out the basis on which United States forces should continue to be in Iraq and they're continuing those negotiations.

We've seen in recent days, Secretary of State Rice and Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki indicate that they're envisaging a drawdown and ultimately a withdrawal of United States troops, as the responsibility falls more to Iraqi troops and Iraqi Government.

But in terms of precise timetable, I think we should wait and see the finalisation of that agreement.

GILLON: Well just finally, is there any update on the kidnapping of the Australian photographer, Nigel Brennan in Somalia?

SMITH: Well it's a very serious situation. We of course feel for the family. They've asked for their privacy to be respected. And to date, my understanding is that that's occurred, so we welcome that and we hope that continues to be respected.

We've been out through our officials in constant contact with the Somali Government. Their local police are to their great credit working very hard on our behalf and we continue to obviously monitor it. We have applied additional resources to the case.

But it's a very difficult circumstance, very sensitive, and we feel for the family. We're providing all the assistance that we can, both to them in Australia, and more importantly through our officials in Somalia and we've spoke through our officials to the highest levels of the Somali Government, including the Prime Minister. So, everything that we can do, we believe is occurring, but it remains a very difficult and sensitive issue.

GILLON: But there's still been no claim of responsibility for the abduction?

SMITH: Well I'm not proposing to go into any of those details. I don't think that would actually assist a successful, ultimate resolution of it. Kidnappings are always terrible. This is in difficult and very sensitive circumstances, and we're doing everything we can, but that's best done, you know, without trawling it through the media.

The family, as I say, have asked for their privacy to be respected and we hope that continues.

GILLON: All right, Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith, thank you for joining us.

SMITH: Thank you.

[Ends]

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