Nicola Smith is the Canberra bureau chief for the Australian Financial Review, a role she assumed in 2025 following a career as a foreign correspondent for the UK’s Sunday Times and Telegraph. Her extensive international reporting has spanned the globe, from the administrative heart of the European Union to the front lines of global flashpoints including North Korea, the South China Sea, Iraq, Afghanistan and Ukraine. After an initial posting in Brussels, she covered Asia while based in Delhi, Taipei and Seoul and brings a global lens to covering national and international security.