Manan Vatsyayana, AFP | Malaysian Muslim school girls pose for a selfie with a cut-out of the US presidential candidate Donald Trump during an event to follow the election results in Kuala Lumpur on November 9, 2016.

The world prepares to face a starkly different United States led by a President Donald Trump.

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While the billionaire businessman's election was welcomed in some countries, others saw it as a big shock, as governments will now have to deal with a man who has cozied up to Vladimir Putin, told NATO allies they would have to pay for their own protection and vowed to make the Mexican government pay for a multibillion-dollar border wall.

Trump's win was particularly startling in Mexico, where his remarks calling Mexican immigrants criminals and "rapists" were a deep insult to national pride. Financial analysts have predicted a Trump win would threaten billions of dollars in cross-border trade, and government officials say they have drawn up a contingency plan for such a scenario, though without releasing details.

"It's DEFCON 2," Mexican analyst Alejandro Hope said. "Probably something as close to a national emergency as Mexico has faced in many decades."

"It depends if he means what he says and if he can do what he claims he wants to do," Hope added. "A massive deportation campaign could really put some stress on Mexican border communities. A renegotiation of NAFTA could seriously hobble the Mexican economy. It could create a lot of uncertainty... Financial markets could suffer."

The Mexican peso, which has tracked the US election closely, fell sharply to 20.45 to the dollar late Tuesday before recovering somewhat. The Bank of Mexico's interbank rate had stood at 18.42 at the end of the day's trading.

In Europe, NATO allies will now wait to see if Trump follows through on suggestions that America will look at whether they have paid their proper share in considering whether to come to their defence.

Trump's rhetoric has challenged the strategic underpinning of the NATO alliance, rattling its leaders at a time when Russia has been increasingly aggressive.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said he was looking forward to working with Trump and that American leadership was vital to the world's biggest military alliance.

Stoltenberg said Wednesday that "it is important that the Trans-Atlantic bond remains strong" and that "US leadership is as important as ever."

Stoltenberg said he looks forward to welcoming Trump at next spring's NATO summit, to be held in the alliance's sprawling new premises in Brussels.

German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen called the US vote "a big shock" and "a vote against Washington, against the establishment."

Von der Leyen said on German public Television Wednesday that while many questions remain open, "We Europeans obviously know that as partners in NATO, Donald Trump will naturally ask what 'are you achieving for the alliance,' but we will also ask 'what's your stand toward the alliance.'"

German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the outcome of the US presidential election is "different than most people in Germany would have wanted, but of course we have to respect it."

Steinmeier said that Donald Trump's victory means "nothing is going to get easier. A lot will get harder."

But he told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday that it was important to maintain good trans-Atlantic relations which he likened to "the foundations of the West."

He said Germany would seek dialogue with the Trump administration, but warned that American foreign policy would likely become "less predictable."

French President François Hollande, who once said Trump made him want to retch, warned Wednesday that the Republican billionaire's stunning victory in the US election "opens a period of uncertainty".

In a televised address, Hollande underlined that the US was a key partner for business, for solving wars in the Middle East and tackling global warming -- something Trump has dismissed as a hoax.

"This American election opens a period of uncertainty," he said in a statement that offered only brief congratulations to the Republican billionaire.

As well as France keeping up its global role, "this context calls for a united Europe, capable of making itself heard and of promoting policies wherever its interests or its values are challenged", he said.

European Union leaders have invited Trump to come visit the 28-nation bloc as possible to assess trans-Atlantic ties.

With "sincere congratulations," EU Council President Donald Tusk and his Commission counterpart Jean-Claude Juncker said that, despite Trump's campaign talk of protectionism and isolationism, both sides "should consolidate the bridges we have been building across the Atlantic."

Tusk famously quoted his wife during the US election campaign, saying that "One Donald is more than enough!"

After Wednesday's shock election result, Tusk and Juncker said that "it is more important than ever to strengthen trans-Atlantic relations." That is why they invited Trump to come over for a visit "at your earliest convenience."

The French populist, anti-immigrant politician Marine Le Pen congratulated Trump even before the final results were known, tweeting her support to the "American people, free!"

Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said France would work with the new president and that European politicians should heed the message from Trump votes. "There is a part of our electorate that feels ... abandoned," including people who feel "left behind by globalisation," he said.

Trump's victory is being viewed with shock and revulsion in Ireland, a country close to the Clintons and fearful of Trump's campaign pledge to confront US companies using Ireland as a tax shelter.

The newspaper of record, the Irish Times, branded the New York businessman a "misogynistic racist liar" who would fan instability overseas and intolerance at home.

Irish Times columnist Fintan O'Toole wrote Wednesday: "The republic of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt is now the United Hates of America."

"President Trump is the creation of the same demographic that gave Europe its far-right authoritarian movements with such disastrous consequences for the world," he wrote. "This does not mean that we are facing an American fascism. But it does mean that Trump will not be able to rule without stoking and manipulating fear."

British Prime Minister Theresa May congratulated Trump, saying the two countries would remain "strong and close partners on trade, security and defense." Her predecessor, David Cameron, had been outspoken in his criticism of Trump during the primary campaign.

In a statement, May said Trump had won after "a hard-fought campaign".

She stressed the enduring trans-Atlantic "special relationship, based on the values of freedom, democracy and enterprise".

"I look forward to working with President-elect Donald Trump, building on these ties to ensure the security and prosperity of our nations in the years ahead," May said.

Nigel Farage, acting leader of the UK Independent Party, which played an important role convincing Britons to leave the European Union, told The Daily Telegraph that Trump's victory would bring a "massive result" for Britain. A spokesman said Farage - who campaigned briefly with Trump - was flying to Washington Wednesday.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Trump's victory is "great news" and shows "democracy is still alive."

Orban, who returned to power in 2010 and last year built fences on Hungary's southern borders to stop the flow of migrants heading toward Western Europe, said in July that Trump's immigration policies made him the best candidate for Hungary and Europe.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent Trump a telegram Wednesday morning congratulating him on his victory. Putin expressed "his hope to work together for removing Russian-American relations from their crisis state".

Moscow has been unusually prominent in the race. Clinton's campaign and the Obama administration blamed Russian hackers for leaked emails from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign staff. Trump, in turn, has made complimentary remarks about Putin; the ties some of his advisers and former campaign officials have to Russia have raised suspicions.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Donald Trump, calling him a "true friend of the State of Israel".

Netanyahu said Wednesday he believes the two leaders "will continue to strengthen the unique alliance between our two countries and bring it to ever greater heights".

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement that he "congratulates the elected American president, Donald Trump, and hopes that peace will be achieved during his term".

An Abbas aide, Saeb Erekat, said Wednesday he doesn't expect US positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to change under Trump.

Erekat said the Republican and Democratic parties are both committed to a two-state solution of the conflict and "I think this will not change with the coming administration."

In Asia, security issues and trade will top the agenda for the new administration, from North Korea and the South China Sea to the contentious and yet-unratified Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.

Chinese state media and government-backed commentators had signaled Beijing's preference for a Trump win. Like Russia, China is seen as favoring Trump because he appears less willing to confront China's newly robust foreign policy, particularly in the South China Sea.

Clinton, by contrast, is disliked in Beijing for having steered the US "pivot" to Asia aimed at strengthening US engagement with the region, particularly in the military sphere.

Scholar Mei Xinyu wrote in the Communist Party newspaper Global Times that China would find it easier to cope with a Trump presidency.

"Trump has always insisted on abandoning ideological division and minimising the risks that unnecessary conflicts with other countries may bring to the US," Mei wrote.

In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, social media was abuzz with speculation about whether Trump would follow through on campaign rhetoric calling for a ban on Muslims entering the US. Some said they fear they would be prevented from visiting relatives and friends who live in America or travelling there as tourists.

News of Trump's widening lead hit hard in Cuba, which has spent the last two years negotiating normalisation with the US after more than 50 years of Cold War hostility, setting off a tourism boom. Trump has promised to roll back Obama's opening with Cuba unless President Raul Castro agrees to more political freedoms.

"If he reverses it, it hurts us," taxi driver Oriel Iglesias Garcia said. "You know tourism will go down."

In pubs, bars and restaurants in much of the world, people watched TV and took in the surprise news of Trump's victory.

At a pub in Sydney, Pamela Clark-Pearman, a 63-year-old Clinton supporter, sat nursing a beer.

"I never thought the Americans could be so stupid. I just think it's Brexit all over again," Clark-Pearman said, referring to the June 23 British vote to leave the European Union.

Serving the last drinks of the night at a Mexico City tavern where a half-dozen TVs were tuned to election news, bartender Angel Mendoza wondered what will happen to his 15 or so family members living in the United States, about half of whom are there illegally.

"They're not coming here," he said. "Their lives are already made there, but (now) with a certain fear."

Donald Trump's surprise triumph dealt a blow to online betting sites, some of which had paid out winnings prematurely to gamblers backing Hillary Clinton.

Irish bookmaker Paddy Power says it lost about 5 million euros ($5.5 million) in what the Dublin-based business called its "biggest political payout ever."

Company spokesman Feilim Mac An Iomaire said Wednesday: "We're in the business of making predictions and decided to put our neck on the line by paying out early on Hillary Clinton, but boy did we get it wrong. We've been well and truly thumped by Trump."

Undeterred, the company offered fresh betting markets on Trump. His chances of winning re-election in 2020 were rated at 4-to-1 odds, of successful impeachment at 10 to 1, and building his promised border wall with Mexico at a highly unlikely 20 to 1.

(FRANCE 24 with AP and AFP)

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