Biden Projected winner of the U.S. Presidency: World Leaders React
U.S. Allies Congratulate Biden On Election; Kremlin Silent, Iran Cautious RFE/RL
U.S. allies from Europe to East Asia have congratulated Joe Biden on his election as the next U.S. president, with Germany hailing it as a “new and exciting chapter” in transatlantic ties and Japan’s leader pledging to work to ensure “peace, freedom, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region.”
While many allies were quick to offer warm words after Biden was declared the winner November 7, a number of other prominent European and world leaders either stayed silent or issued more tempered statements of support.
In Moscow, the Kremlin had issued no statement on the election as of midafternoon on November 8.
Hungary’s prime minister, whose anti-democratic policies have alienated him from European Union and NATO partners and who is an open supporter of President Donald Trump, sent a letter of congratulations to Biden, according to Viktor Orban’s spokesman.
“Allow me to congratulate you on the successful presidential campaign. I wish you good health and continuous successes in carrying out your extremely responsible mission,” Orban said, according to the Hungarian state news agency MTI.
In the days following the November 3 election, pro-government media in Hungary published unsubstantiated claims of fraud in the U.S. vote.
In Poland, another NATO ally, President Andrezj Duda gave qualified praise to Biden “as we await the nomination by the Electoral College.”
Iran’s president, Hassan Rohani, meanwhile suggested the new Biden administration would be able to “compensate for…previous mistakes” — a reference to Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump.
“Now there is an opportunity for the future American administration to compensate for its previous mistakes and return to the path of adherence to international commitments,” Rohani said in a statement posted on his website.
Tensions with Iran skyrocketed under Trump, who pulled Washington out of the 2015 nuclear accord and reimposed crippling economic sanctions. Trump also ordered the drone assassination in Baghdad of the powerful commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’s Quds Force, Major General Qasem Soleimani. That killing stunned Tehran and many Iranians.
Biden has said that he planned to embark on a “credible path to return to diplomacy” with Iran and raised the possibility of returning to the nuclear deal, negotiated when he was vice president under Barack Obama.
Biden has said he wants to strengthen the transatlantic relationship, including reinvigorating NATO. Some former officials in the Trump White House had warned that Trump might try and withdraw the United States from NATO if he had won a second term.
European leaders expressed a sigh of relief when the election outcome was announced.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she “looked forward to future cooperation with President Biden. Our transatlantic friendship is irreplaceable if we are to master the great challenges of our time.”
French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted: “The Americans have chosen their President. Congratulations @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris! We have a lot to do to overcome today’s challenges. Let’s work together!”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, seen by many as a Trump ally and supporter, congratulated Biden and Harris on her “historic victory.”
“The U.S. is our most important ally and I look forward to working closely together on our shared priorities, from climate change to trade and security,” Johnson said.
In Japan, the closest U.S. ally in the Pacific, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga called on Biden to help strengthen bilateral ties.
“I look forward to working with you to further strengthen the Japan-US Alliance and ensure peace, freedom, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond,” Suga said on a Twitter.
Russia’s ‘Malign Activities’
Biden is expected to take a tougher stance toward the Kremlin on its human rights record and foreign policies compared with Trump.
He has repeatedly criticized President Vladimir Putin for Russia’s “malign actions,” including invading its neighbors and meddling in foreign elections, and recently called Moscow an “opponent.”
While the Kremlin was slow to issue any statement about the Biden victory, Aleksei Navalny, who has become the most prominent and acerbic Kremlin critic and opposition figure, offered his congratulations.
Congratulations, he said in a post to Twitter, “to the Americans on defining the new leadership in a free and fair election. This is a privilege which is not available to all countries. Looking forward to the new level of cooperation between Russia and the US.”
As vice president, Biden was the Obama administration’s point man for Ukraine relations, in the aftermath of the 2014 Euromaidan uprising that ousted Ukraine’s pro-Russian president. That upheaval led to Moscow annexing Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and stoking a war in eastern Ukraine that continues today.
Biden visited Ukraine six times during his tenure as vice president and helped provide more than $1.5 billion in military and other financial aid to Kyiv. He was also deeply involved in pushing the country to clean up rampant corruption, including pushing for the ouster of a notorious prosecutor-general.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who has found his government caught up in U.S. domestic political affairs, tweetedhis congratulations, saying Ukraine “is optimistic about the future of the strategic partnership with the United States.”
Ukraine and the United States “have always collaborated on security, trade, investment, democracy, fight against corruption. Our friendship becomes only stronger!”
Biden By Ken Bredemeier, Wayne Lee VOA
Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, a fixture in Washington political circles for nearly a half century, has been projected as the winner of the U.S. presidency and stands to be inaugurated on January 20, 2021.
Biden, a Democrat who served 36 years in the U.S. Senate and eight years as second in command to former President Barack Obama, was projected by news organizations to have defeated incumbent Republican President Donald Trump after a bitter campaign and days of post-election ballot counting. The results in each state will not be certified for up to 30 days and are subject to court challenges, but they are expected to stand.
Biden’s victory followed four days of suspense during which officials in a half dozen states tabulated millions of mail-in ballots sent by voters who had wanted to stay away from polling stations for fear of contracting the coronavirus.
A counting update from Pennsylvania on Saturday morning made it clear that Biden would win the state, putting him over the threshold of 270 votes required to win in the 538-vote Electoral College.
Shortly after the Pennsylvania projection was announced, Biden issued a statement calling for national unity.
“With the campaign over, it’s time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation,” he said. “It’s time for America to unite. And to heal.”
But the Trump campaign immediately issued a statement challenging the projection and insisted it would continue to fight through the courts to reverse the result.
“We all know why Joe Biden is rushing to falsely pose as the winner, and why his media allies are trying so hard to help him: they don’t want the truth to be exposed. The simple fact is this election is far from over,” the statement began.
“Joe Biden has not been certified as the winner of any states, let alone any of the highly contested states headed for mandatory recounts, or states where our campaign has valid and legitimate legal challenges that could determine the ultimate victor,” it said.
On Monday, the statement continued, Trump’s campaign “will start prosecuting our case in court to ensure election laws are fully upheld and the rightful winner is seated.”
Biden’s win makes Trump the third U.S. chief executive in the last four decades to lose re-election after a single four-year tenure as the American leader. Trump himself was on a golf course when the decision was announced.
Officials do not declare an official winner in their respective states for up to 30 days after the election, but consortiums of major news organizations project a winner in each state when they conclude there are not enough uncounted votes remaining to change the outcome.
This year’s outcome also is subject to recounts in states where the result was very close – usually less than half a percentage point – and a flurry of court challenges from Trump and his Republican Party, who have alleged voting irregularities.
So far, those challenges have been treated skeptically in the courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court – where Republican appointees hold a 6-3 majority – has been reluctant to overrule the states’ election decisions.
This year’s election was extraordinary because of the raging coronavirus, which has so far infected a world-leading 9.7 million Americans and prompted new measures in many states to facilitate early and mail-in voting. It was also impacted by a nationwide wave of protests over the deaths of Black Americans at the hands of white police officers. For full feature visit VOA