In Europe, even as leaders including UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer rushed to congratulate Trump on his victory over Kamala Harris, concerns centre on the president-elect’s campaign assertions that he’d immediately end the war in Ukraine, potentially forcing Kyiv to make territorial concessions to invading Russian forces. French President Emmanuel Macron held a call early Wednesday with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to coordinate on what he called “this new context.”
The world digested the return of Donald Trump to the White House with a sense of shock and trepidation.
Government officials from Beijing to Brussels have bruising memories of his first term, when tariffs on trade and doubts over US security commitments clouded relations, and worry what fresh uncertainty Trump 2.0 will bring. Some diplomats in Asia reacted to the US election outcome by swapping stunned emojis.
