The chairman of the Nobel Foundation board of directors, Carl-Henrik Heldin, expressed his dismay Wednesday over the victory of President-elect Donald Trump, reports Alastair Gee in Berlin.
“I’m very depressed about it,” Heldin said on the sidelines of the Falling Walls science conference in Berlin.
He was filled with foreboding on several counts. “I see a movement towards right-wing populism and isolationism and anti-intellectualism. We move away from logical thinking and rationalism towards a very uncertain direction.”
President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. Heldin emphasized that although he was not involved in the selection, the electoral repudiation of Obama’s course did not change his estimation of the man.
Obama is clearly a statesman,” he said. “I think that Obama has done a lot of excellent things, and in the longer perspective I think we will look back on him as one of the great presidents the U.S. has had.”
Even so, Heldin is profoundly concerned about the future of the Paris Agreement and other efforts to combat global warming, which Trump has called a Chinese hoax. “This is really a scary future because he denies it, which is absolutely shocking,” he said. “We have to take responsibility for our environment. Everyone will realize that at some point, but that point in time will now be pushed forward, to a point when it might be very late and very difficult to do anything against the problems we have caused.”
Heldin was standing in a reception hall with a huge screen showing the election results on CNN. When Trump came on stage to make his acceptance speech, chants of “USA, USA” echoed from the speakers and among the gathered scientists.
As Trump made conciliatory remarks about Hillary Clinton, Heldin murmured, “at least he had the decency to say something nice.” After Trump said that it was “time for us to come together as one united people,” Heldin raised his eyebrows.
At the end of the address, Heldin’s attention was drawn to Barron Trump. “His poor son looks very young and very tired,” he said.
Vladimir Putin has sent Trump a telegram to congratulate him. The Russian president hopes for joint work to improve US-Russian relations, Russian media report.
Russia has been widely accused of backing Trump in the election, and in Moscow, Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin political analyst, was jubilant at the result. He said a Trump presidency would mean more chance that the US would agree with Russia in Syria, and less American backing for “the terroristic junta in Ukraine”.
He denied allegations of Russian interference in the election, but said “maybe we helped a bit with Wikileaks”, according to the Guardian’s Shaun Walker in Moscow.
Alexei Venediktov, the editor in chief of Russia’s liberal Echo of Moscow radio, said some in the Kremlin are probably celebrating now, but other “more serious” people will realise there are unpredictable times ahead.
“Putin doesn’t like unpredictability and Trump is the definition of unpredictability,” he said. “They celebrated Brexit, and then Boris Johnson became foreign secretary, and they thought, ‘Oh God, what is this?’”
Venediktov said in Syria and Ukraine, two key areas where Russia and the US are at loggerheads, there might be little difference between Trump and Clinton in the White House. “What will be really interesting is the Baltics. Will Trump remove troops from there?”
At a morning reception his residence in Moscow held as Trump edged ever closer to the White House, US ambassador to Russia John Tefft reminded visitors that diplomats are unable to give personal opinions on elections. He added: “Whether you’re happy or not, one of the key things here is to understand that our institutions in America will continue.”
Privately, however, many US diplomats in the country will be wondering whether a President Trump means a total reversal on Russia policy. Tefft’s predecessor in the role, Michael McFaul, wrote on Twitter: “Putin intervened in our elections and succeeded.”
Egypt’s President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi is the only Arab leader to have met with Donald Trump, who has also made no secret of his warmth towards Egypt’s ally Russia, reports Ruth Michaelson from Cairo.
Sisi also congratulated Trump on his victory Tuesday night.
Trump told Sisi during a meeting in New York in September that: “under a Trump Administration, the United States of America will be a loyal friend, not simply an ally, that Egypt can count on in the days and years ahead.”
Reached by phone on the cusp of Trump’s victory, spokesman for Egypt’s Foreign Ministry Ahmed Abu Zeid said that Egypt is ready to work with Trump. “In general, I want to emphasize that Egypt has strategic relations with the United States that go beyond who is the president in the White House,” he said.
These relations serve for the benefit of both the Egyptian and American people. We have always stated that choosing the president of the United States is the choice of the American people, and Egypt respects this choice. We stand ready to work closely with the new President of the United states for the benefit of both countries and peoples.
India’s prime minister Narendra Modi has also congratulated Trump, according to Reuters.
And in China, speaking shortly before Trump’s victory was officially announced, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry said Beijing was looking forward to working with the new administration, according to the Guardian’s Tom Phillips.
“We will work with the new US president to ensure the steady and sound development of bilateral relations so as to benefit the people in both countries as well as around the world,” Lu Kang told reporters at a regular press briefing in the Chinese capital.
Lu said Beijing hoped to be able to build a “mutually beneficially” relationship with the US, pointing to the massive growth in trade between the two nations since the 1960s.
Lu said any future disputes over trade could be settled “in a responsible manner” and hinted at Chinese concerns over the possibility that Trump might introduce protectionist measures.
“I would like to say that China and US trade cooperation has benefited the US people rather than hurting their interests,” he said.
More international reaction: Japan, a key US ally, said it would work closely with Donald Trump to ensure stability in the Asia-Pacific region, reports the Guardian’s Justin McCurry in Tokyo
“There is no change to the fact that the Japan-US alliance is the cornerstone of Japanese diplomacy, and Japan will cooperate closely with the US for peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and the world,” the chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, told reporters shortly before Trump was confirmed as president-elect.
Katsuyuki Kawai, an aide to the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said he was planning to fly to Washington to meet Trump officials as early as next week.
Officials in Tokyo denied that Abe had decided to send Kawai to the US because Japan had failed to prepare for a Trump victory.
“We have been preparing to respond to any situation, because our stance is that our alliance with the US remains the cornerstone of our diplomacy, whoever becomes the next president,” Suga said.
The Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, has just tweeted:
“My congratulations to Donald Trump on his victory. We will keep working to reinforce the relationship that binds us with the US, an indispensable partner.”
Mi enhorabuena a Donald Trump por su victoria. Seguiremos trabajando para reforzar la relación que nos une a EEUU, socio indispensable. MR
Nicky Woolf here, taking over from my heroic colleague Tom McCarthy as America begins to face - and Europe begins to wake up to - the realization that Donald Trump is now the president-elect of the United States of America.
Europe waking up means European markets are also waking up. Japan’s Nikkei has already taken a precipitous drop upon learning the news; stay with us for reactions and aftershocks on this most historic of moments.
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