LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: Powerful Republican Senator John McCain is in Australia as a guest of the United States Study Centre at the University of Sydney. We sat down in Parliament House this afternoon.

Senator McCain, thank you very much for taking time to speak to Australian viewers.

SENATOR MCCAIN: Thank you.

LEIGH SALES: Australia's announced today that it will send another 30 troops to Afghanistan and Australia's been committing troops to US-led missions since 9/11 to help in the fight against terrorism.

We were told that it would make the world safer and yet the events in Manchester last week have shown us yet again that the world remains less safe from terrorism than ever?

JOHN MCCAIN, REPUBLICAN SENATOR: I think that's true and I think one of the reasons is that we have not pursued a strategy for victory.

The Obama administration's strategy was 'don't lose' and the fact is that right now the Afghan National Army, known as the ANA is suffering unsustainable losses and we withdrew troops at a time when it was going to be harmful to do so.

I believe that this national security team that is around the President now, General McMaster and General Kelly and General Mattis, I think they are developing a strategy and that strategy means victory.

LEIGH SALES: As you know better than anyone, there are young men and women who are at the pointy end of that strategy putting their lives on the line and Australia, as an ally, has trusted the US that it's been the right strategy.

As I said before, the world is less safe?

JOHN MCCAIN: I said that the strategy was wrong. I said that we can't win if you give the enemy sanctuary, if you are going to announce that you are withdrawing and frankly, I'm sorry I was right, but I predicted exactly what was going to happen.

Now, I believe we have military leaders like General Mattis and General McMaster that have been bred in this conflict, both Afghanistan and Iraq, for the last 15 years.

They know how to win.

LEIGH SALES: But you also have a President at the top of the tree that many people, including here in Australia, look at and feel very, very nervous about?

JOHN MCCAIN: I am nervous from time to time. I do believe that the President has great confidence in this national security team.

I do believe that most of the time that he accepts their advice and counsel. Can I tell you that he does all the time?

No.

And yes, does it bothers me?

Yes, it bothers me.

LEIGH SALES: There's also the issue that, he said he had confidence in the FBI director and then the next minute the FBI director is gone, so this team that you have confidence in, how do we know that they are going to even be there?

JOHN MCCAIN: I am sure that the President has confidence in these military leaders. I really do.

LEIGH SALES: President Trump has just wound up three days of meetings in Europe and after he left the German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that the US is no longer the reliable partner that her country or Europe have been able to rely on in the past and that Europe needs to go it alone.

Is that not a logical conclusion for her to draw given President Trump's behaviour and character and public statements?

JOHN MCCAIN: I have taken the practice of not reacting to what the President says, but what the President does.

He has repeated now, I'm happy to say, a commitment to NATO. I wish when he argued for an increase in European contributions to NATO that he had also pointed out that we are grateful for Article 5 of the NATO conventions which argue that an attack on one is an attack on all.

When we were attacked by, in the United States of America, 9/11, our allies, invoking Article 5 came to our assistance and fought and expended their most precious national assets, their young people's blood, in defence and as a reaction to, an attack on the United States of America.

LEIGH SALES: It is perhaps not just an issue that the Europeans feel a lack of gratitude perhaps or commitment, but they see the US, perhaps, on policy areas going in a different direction to the way they are tracking.

For example, the Paris Accord where all the other European nations want the US to stick to that and President Trump wouldn't give that commitment.

They see President Trump espousing a sort of nationalistic approach rather than a multilateral approach so there are perhaps several things that are causing the Europeans to feel concerned about relying on the US?

JOHN MCCAIN: I think that the Europeans are legitimately concerned, I'd also point out that Barack Obama made that agreement without an agreement from the Congress of the United States which then allows this President to revoke it.

I think the second point is, that when I look at the world in 2009, when Barack Obama became President of the United States, and I look at the world today, it is dramatically changed and one of the major reasons for it is leading from behind.

When America abandons its leadership then bad things happen and that vacuum is filled by evil influences.

So I appreciate the European's viewpoint and their repudiation of Donald Trump but my friends, why don't they say, "Maybe we shouldn't have given Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize before he was ever even elected."

LEIGH SALES: You point out that America needs to lead from in front but the flipside of that is that the world has to want and respect American leadership and isn't the problem for you at the moment that people are reluctant to embrace American leadership under President Trump?

JOHN MCCAIN: The United States of America is supposed to lead. Do you know one of the reasons why President Trump was so warmly received by all of these Middle Eastern countries, because at least they see some positive leadership.

When Barack Obama said that they had crossed the red line with the use of chemical weapons and then didn't do anything about it, America lost credibility.

I believe that if you're looking at the standard of what actually happens versus what is said, then I'll be glad to compare Donald Trump to Barack Obama, including the latest, when chemical weapons were used and we saw these dead children, at least we launched cruise missile strikes in retaliation.

So, again, I think we have got a strong national security team and I have disagreed with the President on many times and very vocally but somehow our European friends think the things were fine over the past eight years then they have a very different view of history than I do.

LEIGH SALES: How much of a threat to global security do you consider the Russian President Vladimir Putin?

JOHN MCCAIN: I think he is the premiere and most important threat, more so than ISIS.

I think ISIS can do terrible things, and I worry a lot about what is happening with the Muslim faith and I worry about a whole lot of things about it but it is the Russians who are trying, who tried to destroy the very fundamental of democracy and that is to change the outcome of an American election.

I have seen no evidence they succeeded but they tried and they are still trying. They are still trying to change elections.

They just tried to affect the outcome of the French election. So I view, Vladimir Putin, who has dismembered the Ukraine a sovereign nation, who is putting pressure on the Baltics.

I view the Russians as the far greatest challenge that we have. We have done nothing to the response the election last November to respond to Vladimir Putin's attempt to change the outcome of our elections.

So way to go Vladimir, we haven't responded at all to it.

So we need to have increased sanctions and hopefully when we come back from our recess the Senate will move forward with sanctions on Russia and enact other penalties for Russian behaviour.

LEIGH SALES: One of the senior advisors in the Trump administration, Jared Kushner who is also the President's son in law is under a lot of scrutiny at the moment for an alleged attempt to establish some back channel between the Trump team and the Kremlin? What's your view of that?

JOHN MCCAIN: My view of it is I don't like it.

I know that some administration officials are saying well that's standard procedure. I don't think that it's standard procedure prior to the inauguration of a President of the United States by someone who is not in an appointed position and I think that Mr Comey, we now know, took action that he did in regards to then candidate Clinton because of some false news that was being put out by the Russians.

I mean, this becomes more and more and more bizarre. In fact, you can't make it up.

LEIGH SALES: North Korea has fired another ballistic missile which has landed in Japan's economic zone, despite the global community attempting to tackle North Korea, it keeps doing this.

JOHN MCCAIN: What is the next step there? The key to it is China. China can restrain North Korean behaviour. I don't think that it's acceptable for the United States of America to have an intercontinental ballistic missile or a missile aimed at Australia with a nuclear weapon on it and depend on our ability to counter it with an anti-missile capability.

So this could be a very serious crisis, along the lines of the Cuban missile crisis, unless we do everything we can to restrain North Korean behaviour. What's the best and easiest way? Obviously the Chinese because the Chinese control basically the North Korean economy.

This is an impending crisis and it requires all of us working together to diffuse this crisis and make sure that China, that North Korea is never in a position where they can threaten the United States of America or Australia or any of our allies with a nuclear weapon.

LEIGH SALES: Senator McCain, great honour to meet you. Thank you so much.

JOHN MCCAIN: Thank you.