By — Nick Schifrin Nick Schifrin Leave a comment 0comments Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-leaders-around-the-world-are-reacting-to-bidens-win Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Audio American presidential elections always draw intense interest globally. This year, Joe Biden’s win was met with an array of reactions, from elation to wariness to silence. The president-elect has already spoken with allies from Europe, Japan and South Korea -- but he has yet to hear from American adversaries including China, North Korea and Russia. Nick Schifrin reports. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. Judy Woodruff: American presidential elections always draw great and intense interest globally, and this year's vote was no different.Joe Biden's win has been met with a variety of reactions, elation in some regions, wariness in others, and some silence so far from American adversaries.Here's Nick Schifrin. Nick Schifrin: In the part of the world perhaps most excited for president-elect Biden, the Irish celebrated their luck. After four years of America first, Western Europe expressed hope for change. Angela Merkel (through translator): Joe Biden has decades of experience in domestic and foreign policy. He knows Germany and Europe well. Nick Schifrin: Many European leaders have worked with Biden and share his day one priorities, reentering the Paris climate accord, extending the New START treaty with Russia, and rejoining the World Health Organization.Among Biden's first phone calls were European allies, including French President Emmanuel Macron. Emmanuel Macron (through translator): I really wanted to congratulate you and congratulate Kamala Harris for this election. Nick Schifrin: In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been a Trump ally. And Biden has rejected Brexit.Yesterday, Johnson expressed relief Biden emphasized shared values in their call. Boris Johnson: It was refreshing, I may say, to have that conversation. I look forward to many more. Nick Schifrin: Biden's second round of calls were with East Asian allies, including South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japan's new prime minister, Yoshihide Suga. Yoshihide Suga (through translator): He said that he looks forward to strengthening the U.S.-Japan alliance and working together on achieving peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. Nick Schifrin: That phrase, the Indo-Pacific, was coined by Japan, but expanded by the Trump administration to counter China.The administration, with bipartisan support, increased operations in the Pacific and accelerated regional cooperation, including with Australia, whose prime minister, Scott Morrison, also talked with Biden. Scott Morrison: We agreed that there was no more critical time for both this alliance between ourselves and the United States, but, more broadly, the working together especially of like-minded countries. Nick Schifrin: Less like-minded, Middle East leaders. The Trump administration facilitated accords between Israel and three Sunni Arab countries. President Donald Trump: I am announcing today that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. Nick Schifrin: It pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal to press confrontation with Iran.On Saturday, after the U.S. media declared Biden president-elect, Saudi leaders tweeted congratulations to the new president of Tanzania. The kingdom waited until late Sunday to congratulate Biden.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Trump's policies would continue. Benjamin Netanyahu (through translator): I welcome the fact that my friend Joe Biden and with him, Kamala Harris, welcomed those agreements. Nick Schifrin: But Biden has vowed to restart negotiations to reenter the Iran nuclear agreement and withdraw support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen.Meanwhile, those who haven't congratulated Biden? Latin American populists Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in Mexico and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, as well as North Korea's Kim Jong-un, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese President Xi Jinping.In China, a cautious response and low expectations, as special correspondent Patrick Fok reports. Patrick Fok: Burnished autumn leaves are a sign of changing times in Beijing. But, as the U.S. prepares for a new era of leadership under Joe Biden, people here are sure about one thing. There will be no seasonal shift in relations between China and America.Beijing's yet to acknowledge Joe Biden's victory, but there has been a change in tone from Chinese media. The state-run Global Times offered this view on Wednesday, saying the president-elect would be more cooperative than Trump.What we have been seeing here in the press over the last few days is a focus on a chaotic situation in the U.S. I have got a copy of The Global Times here from a few days ago, with one article titled "Analysts Predict Final Madness in U.S.-China Policy in Last Days of Trump Presidency." Nick Schifrin: Patrick Fok in Beijing. Listen to this Segment Watch Watch the Full Episode PBS NewsHour from Nov 12, 2020 By — Nick Schifrin Nick Schifrin Nick Schifrin is PBS NewsHour’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Correspondent. He leads NewsHour’s daily foreign coverage, including multiple trips to Ukraine since the full-scale invasion, and has created weeklong series for the NewsHour from nearly a dozen countries. The PBS NewsHour series “Inside Putin’s Russia” won a 2017 Peabody Award and the National Press Club’s Edwin M. Hood Award for Diplomatic Correspondence. In 2020 Schifrin received the American Academy of Diplomacy’s Arthur Ross Media Award for Distinguished Reporting and Analysis of Foreign Affairs. He was a member of the NewsHour teams awarded a 2021 Peabody for coverage of COVID-19, and a 2023 duPont Columbia Award for coverage of Afghanistan and Ukraine. Prior to PBS NewsHour, Schifrin was Al Jazeera America's Middle East correspondent. He led the channel’s coverage of the 2014 war in Gaza; reported on the Syrian war from Syria's Turkish, Lebanese and Jordanian borders; and covered the annexation of Crimea. He won an Overseas Press Club award for his Gaza coverage and a National Headliners Award for his Ukraine coverage. From 2008-2012, Schifrin served as the ABC News correspondent in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 2011 he was one of the first journalists to arrive in Abbottabad, Pakistan, after Osama bin Laden’s death and delivered one of the year’s biggest exclusives: the first video from inside bin Laden’s compound. His reporting helped ABC News win an Edward R. Murrow award for its bin Laden coverage. Schifrin is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a board member of the Overseas Press Club Foundation. He has a Bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and a Master of International Public Policy degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). @nickschifrin