Close X
Friday, November 8, 2024
ADVT 
International

Global leaders congratulate Trump but his victory looks set to roil the world -- again

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 06 Nov, 2024 06:11 AM
  • Global leaders congratulate Trump but his victory looks set to roil the world -- again

The verdict of U.S. voters was more decisive than most pundits and analysts had predicted. Now the world waits to see whether the election of Donald Trump as president for a second time is as destabilizing many American allies fear.

Trump secured victory Wednesday after surpassing the 270 electoral college votes needed to win. In a victory speech before the official declaration, he vowed to “put our country first” and bring about a “golden age” for America.

Trump’s first term saw him insult and alienate many of the United States’ longstanding allies. His return to the White House, four years after losing office to President Joe Biden, has huge consequences for everything from global trade to climate change to multiple crises and conflicts around the world.

Trump has pledged to ramp up a tariff feud with China, the United States’ growing economic and strategic rival. In the Middle East, Trump has pledged, without saying how, to end the conflicts between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah. He has also vowed to end the Russia-Ukraine war within 24 hours of taking office – something Ukraine and its supporters fear would be on terms favorable to Moscow.

Here’s how leaders and others around the world are reacting:

NATO is nervous and Ukraine is anxious

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte congratulated Trump, saying – likely more in hope than in certainty – that “I look forward to working with him again to advance peace through strength through NATO” in the face of “a growing number of challenges globally,” including “the increasing alignment of China, Russia, North Korea and Iran.”

Trump was a strong critic of the North Atlantic military alliance during his first term, accusing its other members of failing to pull their weight. Earlier this year he said the United States would not defend NATO members that don’t meet defense spending targets.

Rutte emphasized the positive, praising Trump for his work persuading member states to ramp up defense spending and saying NATO was now “stronger, larger, and more united.”

America’s allies are – belatedly, some say – grappling with what to do if they cannot depend on the U.S. for their defense. Phillips O’Brien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St Andrews, said it’s not just NATO. Washington's other allies in the Indo-Pacific, including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and even Australia, “can no longer look for the U.S.A. to be a reliable partner in defense,” he said.

Nowhere are the stakes higher than for Ukraine – the U.S. is by far Kyiv’s biggest military backer as it battles Russian invasion. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, like Rutte, said he welcomed Trump’s “peace through strength” approach.

“This is exactly the principle that can practically bring just peace in Ukraine closer,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media. “I am hopeful that we will put it into action together. We look forward to an era of a strong United States of America under President Trump’s decisive leadership.”

No congratulations were forthcoming from Moscow, where President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, declared that Russia-U.S. relations were at the “lowest point in history.”

European congratulations mask deep divisions

European leaders rushed to congratulate Trump even before his victory was officially declared – some more effusively than others.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called it a historic election victory.

Like governments of U.S. allies around the world, Starmer’s center-left administration has worked hard to forge ties with Trump and his team. Starmer had dinner with Trump at Trump Tower in September.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also extended his congratulations to Donald Trump on his re-election as president of the United States. 

France’s centrist President Emmanuel Macron offered congratulations, “respect and ambition.” Social democratic German Chancellor Olaf Scholz congratulated Trump and said he wanted continued close ties, even if “surely many things will be different under a Donald Trump-led administration.”

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, whose far right-led government is in some ways close to Trump politically, said Italy and the U.S. had a “strategic bond, which I am sure we will now strengthen even more.”

European leaders are keen to stress that the trans-Atlantic relationship transcends individual politicians, but Trump’s protectionist economic leanings are causing concern. During his last term he slapped tariffs on European steel and aluminum, roiling the bloc’s economy.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stressed that the EU and the U.S. "are bound by a true partnership between our people, uniting 800 million citizens. Let us work together on a transatlantic partnership that continues to deliver for our citizens.”

Europe’s populist politicians, meanwhile, welcomed the victory of a politician they consider a kindred spirit.

“They threatened him with prison, they took his property, they wanted to kill him ... and he still won,” said Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

On Thursday, Orbán, will hold a summit in Budapest for some 50 other European leaders – many of whom feel much more apprehensive about the impact of a second Trump presidency on Europe’s economy and security.

A Middle East in turmoil awaits Trump’s moves

During his first term, Trump pushed to remake the Middle East by reconciling Israel and Saudi Arabia, and all eyes now are on how he intervenes in the region’s raging conflicts between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Trump’s election win “history’s greatest comeback.”

“Your historic return to the White House offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America. This is a huge victory!” he wrote on social media.

Trump and Netanyahu – a fellow conservative nationalist -- had a tight relationship during the former president’s first term, but the ties soured when Netanyahu congratulated President Joe Biden for winning in 2020.

Netanyahu’s inner circle hopes Trump will allow Israel free rein against its enemies, but the president-elect is famously unpredictable, and the Israeli leader faces strong opposition at home. On Tuesday he fired popular Defense Minister Yoav Gallant amid divisions over the conduct of the war, a surprise announcement that sparked protests across the country.

Hamas issued a terse statement saying “our position on the new U.S. administration depends on its positions and practical behavior towards our Palestinian people, their legitimate rights and their just cause.”< Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Trump and spoke to the great friendship they have.

Washington is one of the key mediators of so-far unsuccessful Gaza cease-fire talks and has publicly accused Hamas of turning down several deals. Hamas has denied this, instead blaming Israel for demanding last minute changes to the proposals.

The challenge of China still looms. 

There was no immediate reaction from the Chinese government to Trump’s victory, but analysts were pessimistic, citing the likelihood of escalating tariffs and an intensifying confrontation over Taiwan.

“It is not all dark, but there are more challenges than opportunities,” said Da Wei, director of the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University in Beijing. “We are clear about the challenges. As for opportunities, we are yet to see them clearly.”

Long-seething territorial disputes in the South China Sea are a delicate fault line in the U.S.-China rivalry in Asia and likely will remain a major foreign policy concern for the next American president.

U.S. allies in Asia, apprehensive about China’s growing clout, clamored for Trump’s attention in congratulatory messages.

“I hope to closely cooperate with President-elect Trump to further elevate Japan-U.S. alliance and relations to even higher levels,” Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba told reporters, saying he hoped to speak to the president-elect soon.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol wrote on X: “Under your strong leadership, the future of the ROK-U.S. alliance and America will shine brighter,” using the initials of South Korea’s formal name, the Republic of Korea. “Look forward to working closely with you.”

Tensions between the Koreas are at their highest point in years as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has repeatedly flaunted his expanding nuclear weapons and missile programs, while providing Russia with munitions and troops to support its war in Ukraine.

MORE International ARTICLES

US seizes over 50K Bitcoin worth $3.3 bn stored in popcorn tin

US seizes over 50K Bitcoin worth $3.3 bn stored in popcorn tin
The 32-year-old James Zhong from Georgia fraudulently obtained the Bitcoin from The Silk Road -- a site on the dark web once called "the Amazon of drugs" -- in 2012. Thanks to state-of-the-art cryptocurrency tracing and good old-fashioned police work, law enforcement located and recovered this impressive cache of crime proceeds. 

US seizes over 50K Bitcoin worth $3.3 bn stored in popcorn tin

Election day? More like election week as experts, officials warn of delayed results

Election day? More like election week as experts, officials warn of delayed results
More than 1.4 million mail-in ballots were requested in Pennsylvania this year, he added — 70 per cent of them by registered Democrats, compared to 20 per cent by registered Republicans. 

Election day? More like election week as experts, officials warn of delayed results

Indian Embassy issues advisory to Indian medical students in China

Indian Embassy issues advisory to Indian medical students in China
The clarification from the embassy came after queries raised by students and parents regarding eligibility of those Indian students who are pursuing clinical medicine programme in China, for appearing in the qualifying examination in India.

Indian Embassy issues advisory to Indian medical students in China

Four people plotted to kill me: Imran Khan

Four people plotted to kill me: Imran Khan
He indicated that he received the information of this plot through the relationships he had formed while in power. In his first address since the assassination attempt on him in Gujranwala on Thursday, in which Khan sustained bullet injuries in his leg, the PTI chief stated that he was aware of the plot to kill him.

Four people plotted to kill me: Imran Khan

US risks losing talented H1-B visa holders to Canada: Study

US risks losing talented H1-B visa holders to Canada: Study
In 2015, then President Barack Obama allowed the spouses of H-1B visa holders to work in the US via the H4 (dependent) visa.  H4 visas are issued to dependent spouses and children who accompany H-1B, H-2A, H-2B, and H-3 visa holders to the US.

US risks losing talented H1-B visa holders to Canada: Study

$1 mn reward to nab Indian suspect in Australia murder case

$1 mn reward to nab Indian suspect in Australia murder case
Three Queensland police detectives have travelled to India and are working with authorities to find Rajwinder Singh, 38, who worked as a nurse in Innisfail, but fled the country two days after the murder, leaving behind his job, wife and three children in Australia, news.com.au reported.

$1 mn reward to nab Indian suspect in Australia murder case