How Foreign Leaders and Officials are Reacting to Trump's Election

How Foreign Leaders and Officials are Reacting to Trump's Election

by Whitney Ahn

          Harjit Sajjan, the Canadian Minister of National Defence, said he was "looking forward" to Donald Trump's inauguration, something commonly said about most new President-elects by foreign officials. However, Donald Trump is not most President-elects.

          Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, offered a mixed tone, saying she'd be willing to work with Donald Trump because German-American relations are essential to her country. The deputy chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, however, was far more blunt, saying that "Trump is a trailblazer of a new authoritarian and chauvinist international movement."

          Another international major figure, former Pakistani Ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqan, has also come out with negativity. Today at the Halifax International Security Forum, said of anti-Muslim rhetoric that "harm has already been done... people who like me can't help you."

          Similarly to Merkel, Federica Mogherini (the European Union's foreign affairs chief) tweeted her reaction to Trump's victory: "EU-US ties are deeper than any change in politics." This implies that she has some fears that Trump will cause a major shift regarding American politics towards Europe. Martin Schulz, the president of the European parliament, called Trump's elect "a protest vote" similar to Brexit.

          NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that he was looking forward to working with Trump, but emphasized that "it is important that the transatlantic bond remains strong." Trump has repeatedly called for pulling out of funding for NATO unless other countries agree to pay more.

          Theresa May congratulated Trump on his victory. After Brexit, the UK is trying to maintain positive relationships with as many countries as possible. Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland, went in an opposing route, calling for Trump to prove he "will be a president for everyone in modern, multicultural America."

          In France, President François Hollande said that Trump's win "opens up a period of uncertainty." Hollande had previously endorse Secretary Clinton in the presidential race. He emphasized that "certain positions taken by Donald Trump" put many things in jeopardy, saying that "what is at stake is peace, the fight against terrorism, the situation in the Middle East... economic relations, and the preservation of the planet." However, Marine Le Pen, a major opposition figure globally known for her controversial rhetoric regarding ethnic and racial minorities considered offensive by many, has shown the utmost support for Trump. Trump has returned the favor by going so far as to prioritize conversations with Le Pen above even talking to the French president, and many other world leaders.

          Vladimir Putin sent a telegram to Trump (yes, they still do that), congratulating him. At a ceremony at the Kremlin, he said that "it's not our fault that Russian-American relations our in such a poor state," but expressed optimism that under Trump, the two nations can come closer. Putin clearly sees an opportunity to connect with Trump, and hopes to increase co-operation between the two. In Ukraine, President Petro Poroshenko met with the US ambassador on Wednesday, and claimed that he remained optimistic that "the US administration would remain a reliable partner in the struggle for democracy."

          Isreali Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Trump, and was extremely enthusiastic about his election. One of his ministers, Naftali Bennett, declared that Trump's victory meant that "the era of a Palestinian state is over." Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbasaid expressed serious caution but optimism. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that Trump's "elections marks the beginning of a new era," and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that the election has no impact on Iranian policies.

          Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto expressed a willingness to work with Trump, after being criticized heavily within his country for having dialogues with him while he was still a candidate. Former presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that Mexico is "a free independent, sovereign country," that it is neither a colony nor a protectorate, and that Mexico depends on no foreign government.

          China's President Xi Jinping congratulated Trump, and Lu Kang, a spokesperson for China's foreign ministry, said that they were looking forward to working with him. Joko Widodo, the president of Indonesia (the world's largest Muslim nation), said that he "thinks there will be no change." President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, known for mass murders and insulting Barack Obama (he called him a "son of a whore" earlier this year), extended warm congratulations

          Japan's Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, was the first foreign leader to meet with Trump, and expressed cautious optimism, a tone that seems to be struck by the vast majority of foreign leaders and officials.

The Duterte Problem

How to Deal with Rodrigo Duterte

by Whitney Ahn

Yesterday, on the 20th of October 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines announced that he wants to end his nation’s relationship with the United States, and conduct a pivot to China (a pivot already more successful than President Obama’s attempted Asia pivot). This comes just one day after a police van rammed into anti-American protesters outside the U.S. embassy in Manila, after months of seemingly insane human rights abuses from the police, and after months brutally public and blatantly anti-American rhetoric from the Filipino leader. He even went so far as to call President Barack Obama what roughly translates to “a son of bitch”.

These should incredibly concerning, because the Philippines are an absolutely key ally of the United States. Together with Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan, the Philippines are a major counter-balance to Chinese power in East Asia. In addition, they export to the United States everything from computer parts to coconut oil to textiles to automobile parts, and, in terms of natural resources that a positive relationship with the United States could lead to American exploitation of, they also have about twenty-two billion metric tons of metals. Beyond just the erosion of a major alliance, the cavalier attitude that Rodrigo Duterte has publically held for the United States is damaging the reputation of our nation. Other allies wary of America suddenly find themselves in a situation where they have the option to disavow the United States completely. Irreparable damage has been caused, so crisis management skills need to come into play here.

If the Filipino anti-American sentiment is dissolved, the support for Rodrigo Duterte may also dissolve. In addition, because American culture is more empathetic to the less fortunate than Asian cultures often are, a reshaping of Filipino culture to be more American-like would most likely result in less support for the Duterte’s hyper-violent tendencies and policies. Thus the initial solution to the problem of Rodrigo Duterte’s negative influence on the Philippines relationship with human rights, and also with the United States, must be a cultural shift. Thus, the next question must be: How does the United States go about shifting the Philippines’ culture to be more pro-Western, and, more specifically, more pro-American? One potential proposal could be a simple yet effective solution: waging a propaganda war.

While the United States government needs to work a lot more at changing the Filipino view of the United States by investing more into a public diplomacy, another important step for the United States to take is to cause further rifts in their relationships with China. The South China Sea seems like an obvious place to start. By increasing military drills and patrols in the region, the United States could force the focus of all the nations in the region to return to that conflict, distracting from the Filipino-American rift and reigniting the Filipino-Chinese rift. After all, the Philippines would be forced to either side with China, effectively ceding their territorial claims, or side with the United States and its allies, forcing a return to the normal alignments of states.