World leaders say heartened for future with Biden at helm

MEXICO CITY — Leaders across the globe welcomed the arrival of U.S. President Joe Biden and the end of the presidency of Donald Trump, noting that the world’s most pressing problems, including the covid-19 pandemic and climate change, require multilateral cooperation.

Many expressed hope Wednesday that Biden would right the world’s largest democracy two weeks after they watched rioters storm the Capitol, shaking the faith of those fighting for democracy in their own countries.

Governments targeted and sanctioned under Trump embraced the chance for a fresh start with Biden, while some heads of state who lauded Trump’s blend of nationalism and populism were more restrained in their expectations for the Biden administration — and in some cases spoke nostalgically of the Trump years.

But a chance to repair frayed alliances and work together to address problems extending beyond any one country’s borders carried the day.

Biden “understands the value and the importance of multilateralism. He understands the importance of cooperation among nations,” said former Colombian President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Juan Manuel Santos, who left office in 2018.

“As a matter of fact, if we don’t cooperate — all nations — to fight climate change, then we will all perish. It’s as simple as that,” Santos said.

French President Emmanuel Macron also noted the urgency of addressing the perils the world faces from climate change after Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate accord, a move Biden planned to reverse in the first hours of his presidency.

With Biden, “we will be stronger to face the challenges of our time. Stronger to build our future. Stronger to protect our planet,” he wrote on Twitter. “Welcome back to the Paris Agreement!”

Elsewhere in Europe, close U.S. allies saw a chance to come in out of the cold after strained security and economic relationships with the Trump administration.

“This new dawn in America is the moment we’ve been awaiting for so long,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, hailing Biden’s arrival as “resounding proof that, once again after four long years, Europe has a friend in the White House.”

European Council President Charles Michel said trans-Atlantic relations have “greatly suffered in the last four years. In these years, the world has grown more complex, less stable and less predictable.”

“We have our differences and they will not magically disappear. America seems to have changed, and how it’s perceived in Europe and the rest of the world has also changed,” added Michel.

In Germany, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier issued a video statement, calling Biden’s inauguration a “good day for democracy.”

With Biden and incoming Vice President Kamala Harris, Steinmeier said the U.S. would again be a “vital partner” to tackle issues like the coronavirus pandemic, climate change, security issues including arms control and disarmament, and multiple conflicts.

In Ballina, Ireland, where Biden’s great-great-grandfather was born in 1832, a mural of a smiling Biden adorned a wall in the town, where some of the president’s relatives still live.

“As he takes the oath of office, I know that President Biden will feel the weight of history — the presence of his Irish ancestors who left Mayo and Louth in famine times in search of life and hope,” Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who formed close ties with Trump, noted a “warm personal friendship” with Biden. “I look forward to working with you to further strengthen the U.S.-Israel alliance … and to confront common challenges, chief among them the threat posed by Iran,” Netanyahu said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has accused Trump of unfair bias toward Israel with policies like moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, expressed hope for a more even-handed approach from Biden. He urged “a comprehensive and just peace process that fulfills the aspirations of the Palestinian people for freedom and independence.”

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, whose country has had a tumultuous relationship with Washington, having been criticized for aiding the Afghan Taliban, said in a tweet that he looked forward to building a stronger partnership through trade, economic engagement and countering climate change.

In Mexico, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who cultivated an unexpectedly friendly relationship with Trump and was one of the last world leaders to recognize Biden’s victory, read from a letter he sent to Biden in 2012, calling for reorienting the bilateral relationship away from security and military aid and toward development.

He urged Biden to implement immigration change, and added: “We need to maintain a very good relationship with the United States government and I don’t have any doubt that it’s going to be that way.”

Information for this article was contributed by Nicole Winfield, Kathy Gannon, Laurie Kellman, Josef Federman, Alex Sanz, David Rising, Joshua Goodman, Andrea Rodriguez, Scott Smith, Sylvie Corbet and Jill Lawless of The Associated Press.