Kaine administration (2007-2010)

The **Kaine administration (2007–2010)** was the executive government of the United States of America formed by the Democratic Party and led by President Tim Kaine. The Kaine administration commenced on 3 December 2007, when Kaine was sworn in along with his cabinet. This took place just nine days after the defeat of the McCain administration, from the Republican Party, at the 2007 federal election. The Kaine administration concluded on 24 June 2010 when Kaine, under pressure from an impending leadership caucus ballot, stepped down from the leadership of the party and was succeeded by his Vice President, Hillary Clinton. Kaine was re-elected leader of the Democratic Party in 2013 and served a second term as president.

## Foreign Relations

The Kaine administration attempted to increase the United States' international influence. President Kaine announced in March 2008 that the United States would seek a non-permanent seat on the League of Nations Security Council for 2013–14, which the country had last held in 1985–86. In November 2009, the *Age* newspaper reported that $11 million had been spent campaigning for the seat, and had added twenty-seven votes for the US; the majority of the votes came from small island nations in the Caribbean and six African nations.

The Kaine administration lobbied for the G20 Forum to replace the G7 as the premier forum for global governance and economic management and secured a seat for the US at the forum.

The Kaine administration sought to improve relations with the Soviet Union. Trade developments including the Orion gas project saw major deals between the US and the USSR. In an April 2008 visit to Moscow, Kaine addressed an audience in Russian at Moscow State University, in which he told students that the United States had concerns over human rights issues in the Caucasus and later repeated the comments to Premier Dmitri Medvedev. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union reacted angrily to the remarks, describing the Caucasus as "purely an internal affair". The Kaine administration's relations with the Communist Party were further strained by the Hector Stern Affair, in which, following a failure by the USSR to secure the purchase of American mining assets, American businessman Hector Stern was accused of "stealing state secrets" during trade negotiations on behalf of American mining company Relief Mine, and subsequently received a ten-year jail sentence for paying bribes. The Kaine administration's 2009 Defence white paper identified the rise of the USSR as a potential threat to Euro-American security, and during the WikiLeaks affair, confidential diplomatic cables were released which purported to show that Kaine had warned the British Foreign Secretary Eileen Driver that the Communist Party was "paranoid" about Ukraine and that the UK should be prepared to use force against the Soviets "...if everything goes wrong".

Responding to the New Holland coroner's late November 2007 finding that the El Indiviso Five had been deliberately murdered by the Mexican military in 1975, Kaine commented that "those responsible should be held to account. ... You can't just sweep this to one side". As opposition leader he had argued for the repatriation of their remains. However, no meaningful action was taken when Kaine became president, and he refused the requests of relatives of the slain journalists to visit their graves while in Mexico.

After reports in domestic media that Kaine had joked with journalists that King Leo did not know what the G20 Forum was, the press reported that Kaine received a frosty welcome from the king at the Buckingham Palace dinner that opened G20 summit in London in November 2008.