Just hours after Donald Trump became the U.S president-elect on Wednesday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani congratulated Trump on his win.
Ghani said in a statement that the U.S “is an essential and important strategic partner to Afghanistan in development of the country and fighting terrorism.”
“The government of Afghanistan hopes that in close cooperation with the new president of the United States, relations between the two countries expand further and develop in a way that is in the interest of the two countries and nations,” Ghani said.
He also wished Trump further success in fulfilling his new responsibility.
CEO Abdullah Abdullah also extended his congratulations to Trump for becoming the 45 president of the U.S.
He said in a statement: “Afghanistan and the United States are strategic allies and friends. Combating extremism and efforts to bring peace and stability are the top priorities of both countries.”
“With Mr Trump’s victory, the chief executive of Afghanistan expects the strength and expansion of strategic economic, military, social and cultural cooperation between the two countries,” he added.
He also wished Trump “good luck”.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent Trump a telegram congratulating him.
The State Duma in the former Soviet Union also reportedly broke into thunderous applause upon news of Hillary Clinton’s defeat on Wednesday morning.
In a statement issued by the Kremlin, Putting expressed “his hope to work together for removing Russian-American relations from their crisis state”.
Putin also said he had confidence in “building a constructive dialogue between Moscow and Washington that is based on principles of equality, mutual respect and a real accounting of each other’s positions, in the interests of our peoples and the world community”.
Reuters reported that French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Europe must not flinch in defending its interests and people now that Trump’s election win has added to the uncertainty created by Britain’s decision to exit the European Union.
France is a key American ally, and its officials had in recent weeks openly endorsed Hillary Clinton’s warning that Trump’s “confused” foreign policy objectives were alarming for the rest of the world.
“We have to meet the challenge for a Europe that must be able to better defend its citizens and its interests,” Ayrault told France 2 television.
“Europe cannot blink after Brexit, after the election of Donald Trump with all the questions being raised, Europe must stand together more, be more active and go more on the offensive even if it is just to protect itself.”
Trump’s comment in July that “France is no longer France”, and that if it had looser gun laws then the attacks would not have happened, have upset French officials.
“The United States is our ally and we have to continue working with it in clarity,” Ayrault said. “Perhaps Trump will not keep the promises he made, but you see the relations he has with Mexico, it’s very serious. In China, they are worried, so France and Europe must play a role to reassure.”
Trump’s campaign has been marked by insults and inflammatory rhetoric with regard to radical Islam, while on international affairs he has brought into question U.S policy on everything from Syria to Iran, Mexico and North Korea.
Germany’s Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen meanwhile described Trump’s gains in the U.S presidential election as a “huge shock” on Wednesday and asked him for assurances on his commitment to NATO.
Von der Leyen told broadcaster ARD that the Republican candidate’s strong showing was “not a vote for him but rather against Washington, against the establishment”.
Reuters reported her as saying: “It was a big shock when I saw the way things are heading.”
Germany, like other European countries, was alarmed by Trump’s comments earlier in the campaign that if Russia attacked a NATO member, he would consider whether the targeted country had met its defense commitments before providing military aid.
“Of course we Europeans, as a NATO ally, know that if Donald Trump becomes president, he’ll ask: What are you contributing to this alliance?” von der Leyen, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, said.
“But we’re also wondering, what’s your position on this alliance?” she added, in the first comments from a German minister on the U.S. vote.
Von der Leyen said the German government now needed to find out know who their contact person would be in a Trump government and what campaign announcements he wanted to implement.
“There are many questions yet to be answered,” she said.
Outgoing President Barack Obama meanwhile cleared his schedule Thursday to meet with Trump. In addition, the European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker invited Trump to the EU summit at the “earliest convenience”.
Trump’s election victory is being widely reported to have proved that 2016 was the year that everything the political class thought it knew was wrong.
Trump’s defeat of Hillary Clinton upended years of experience as to how campaigns operate, and showed how America’s demographics are changing and how a controversial nominee can win the race.
Media around the world have reported on how the polls were wrong, how projection models were wrong and how veterans of previous presidential campaigns were wrong.
As CNN stated, Trump’s victory is one of the most stunning upsets in American political history.
Political professionals will now spend the coming weeks and months studying just how and why everyone missed it, the news channel reported.
tolonews.com
