Offering Rudd Foreign Affairs portfolio 'beset with risk', experts warn Gillard

Canberra, Sept 8 (ANI): Amid speculations that the former Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, would be offered the Foreign Affairs portfolio, many experts have raised concerns saying he would be a "risky choice" for the job as he had damaged relations with key international partners while in power.

According to News.com.au, Rudd has been mooted for the Foreign Affairs job and has also expressed interest in health and indigenous policy.

However, a former senior defence official, Professor Hugh White, said that although Rudd is an expert on diplomatic issues and his fluency in Mandarin is a genuine asset, he would be a risky choice as foreign minister.

"Rudd's performance on foreign affairs issues in government as prime minister was not that impressive. In some ways I think he damaged relations with some of our most important partners," Professor White, now head of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University, claimed.

Earlier, the country's first female premier Julia Gillard promised that Rudd would be appointed to a senior position in her cabinet.

"I gave Kevin Rudd a commitment that he would be a senior member of my ministerial team, a Cabinet minister, and he will be," she said.

She also signalled that she would follow Rudd's footsteps and choose her own ministry.

Labor's caucus will reportedly meet in Canberra tomorrow and Gillard said she expects her new ministerial line-up to be sworn in at Government House early next week. (ANI)