Some international observers are amused, but others regard Britain’s top diplomat as a new and unnecessary problem

International reaction to the appointment of Boris Johnson as foreign secretary has been overwhelmingly negative. The news prompted incredulity in stunned global capitals, with few finding anything good to say about Britain’s new top diplomat. Some even wondered whether the story was a joke.



This hostile view has several explanations. In his colourful career as a newspaper columnist Johnson has offended a large number of world leaders. They include the US president, Barack Obama, and his likely successor, Hillary Clinton, as well as the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

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But additionally, and perhaps more seriously, Johnson is widely viewed as inherently untrustworthy. In Brussels, and in other EU capitals, he is seen as the man whose lies, opportunism and vaunting ego brought about Britain’s disastrous EU exit.

This anger is genuine. And unlikely to dissipate quickly. On Thursday France’s foreign minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, summed up what most of unhappy continental Europe felt, declaring: “He [Johnson] lied a lot to the British. Now, he is the one with his back against the wall.”

The problem, in Ayrault’s damning view, was that France needed a UK partner who was “clear, credible and reliable” and “with whom I can negotiate”. This was not Johnson, he made clear. Much of the rest of the world agrees, with Johnson regarded as a new and unnecessary problem.

United States

In the US, the official reaction was one of carefully restrained laughter.



When State Department spokesman Mark Toner heard the news, he struggled to keep a straight face – a broad smile breaking out more than once – before saying the US “looked forward” to working with Johnson.

In the run-up to Brexit, the former mayor of London had sharply criticised Obama. Johnson was accused of dogwhistle racism when he said in an article for the Sun in April that the “part-Kenyan” US president’s “ancestral dislike of the British empire” had led him to remove a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office.

Obama said in reply to Johnson that he voluntarily had a bust of Churchill outside his private office on the White House’s second floor “so that I see it every day – including on weekends when I’m going into that office to watch a basketball game”. Johnson likened Hillary Clinton to “a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital”.

Germany

The chancellor, Angela Merkel, refrained from commenting on the new head of the Foreign Office. “I believe it is our task to work closely with governments in allied countries. The world has enough problems for us to progress in our foreign policy cooperation with Great Britain as we have always done,” she told reporters.

Ralf Stegner, deputy chairman of the Social Democratic party, Merkel’s junior coalition partner, said: “May looks weaker after such a choice of personnel.” Johnson had not come across as an exemplary diplomat in the past, Stegner said. “Now he is negotiating Brexit. Enjoy the trip!”



Simone Peter, co-leader of the Green party, likened Johnson’s appointment to “trusting the cat to keep the cream”. Green party parliamentary co-leader Anton Hofreiter said appointing Johnson was “a very bad sign for the leaving process and raises doubts over the competency of the new prime minister”.



The Brussels correspondent of German public broadcaster ZDF, Anne Gellinek, said that Johnson was “properly, properly hated” and seen as “the head of a campaign of lies” in the EU’s headquarters. ZDF’s Berlin correspondent, Nicole Diekmann, tweeted: “So, Boris Johnson, foreign minister. British humour.”



Nikolaus Blome, the deputy editor of Germany’s biggest tabloid Bild, tweeted: “There’s justice after all. As foreign minister, Boris Johnson now has to lie in the bed he made himself.”

Nikolaus Blome (@NikolausBlome) Es gibt doch noch Gerechtigkeit: Als Außenminister muss Boris #Johnson die Suppe (mit) auslöffeln, die er seinem Land eingebrockt hat...

Jürgen Hardt, the foreign policy spokesman for Merkel’s Christian Democrats, argued that putting leave campaigners in positions of power may keep the UK in the EU.

“It is in every respect a smart move by the new prime minister Theresa May to prominently involve the leading exponent of the leave camp within her party in her government,” he wrote. “If this government, with Johnson’s support, one day come to conclude in the face of the facts that it should not complete an exit from the EU after all, it would thus have guaranteed support in her party and possibly even among the people.”

France

As well as the assessment of Johnson’s French counterpart that the new UK foreign secretary was a “liar”, there was also a degree of appalled surprise from French media and commentators, many of whom had been shocked by what they saw as the intellectual dishonesty of some of Johnson’s comments during the referendum campaign, namely when he compared the EU to Adolf Hitler.

Johnson speaks fluent French with an accent, which he calls his own “barbarian form of French” learned when he was a Brussels correspondent. He has often been to France to promote his books on Churchill or London, which have been translated into French and sold well. He easily holds court on French radio in French, and as London mayor conducted meetings with Paris politicians in French.



But he is best known for what has been seen as his relentless “French-bashing” and endless quest for hammy punchlines at the expense of France. Le Monde warned after his appointment: “His talent for theatrics is well known, but it remains to be seen how much talent he has in international diplomacy.”

China

The world’s second largest economy was scratching its head as it woke up to the news that Johnson – or “Bao Li Si” as he is known in Chinese – had been made foreign secretary. In China Johnson is seen more as a celebrity than a serious politician.



“What’s going on?” one baffled Chinese commentator wrote on a popular WeChat group dedicated to life in Britain. “Foreign secretary Boris is going to hog the global headlines,” the writer predicted, adding: “Does Auntie May think he is a mascot? I can hardly bear to watch it unfold on [state broadcaster] CCTV.”

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Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter, also erupted in a bout of Borisology, with many observers focusing on the former London mayor’s hair rather than his foreign policy experience. “Just from looking at Boris Johnson you can tell that British hairdressing is not doing so well,” quipped one. “He’s so funny!” said another.

But one less enthusiastic Weibo user asked: “What are they doing? Boris will be in charge of diplomacy???”

There was also bewilderment at Johnson’s appointment in Beijing’s diplomatic circles. During his last trip to China in 2013, the loquacious London mayor bamboozled Chinese interpreters with his use of words such as polymorphous and joked about his Bullingdon Club days to a senior Communist party leader.

“The idea of having Boris Johnson as foreign secretary never even entered my mind,” admitted one senior western diplomat. The diplomat, who keeps one eye on Westminster politics, described Johnson’s appointment as a risky move that had the potential to backfire badly.

“But sometimes a bit of charisma helps give you more visibility. Let’s see if he is more pragmatic and less of a performer in his new job.”

In the hours after Johnson’s unveiling, British residents of the Chinese capital were bombarded with sarcastic messages from fellow expats. “What is happening to your country?” read one provocation sent to the Guardian.

Another, less diplomatic dispatch sent to a functionary of the British embassy said simply: “Your new boss is a plonker.”

Middle East

Middle Eastern governments are maintaining a diplomatic silence on the appointment, but given Johnson’s record there will be anxiety in various quarters across the region.

Syria’s western-backed opposition has suffered a blow, commented the influential Palestinian journalist Abdel-Bari Atwan, since Johnson’s call for “doing business” with Bashar al-Assad contradicts current British policy that the president must step down.

Johnson’s focus on the dangers of Isis has led him to call for fighting alongside Assad and Vladimir Putin – a position which will do little to address the root causes of the five-year war. Britain is an active member of the International Syria Support Group but in recent months the Foreign Office has become increasingly concerned about the convergence of views between the US and Russia.

“I think Boris will approach Syria from a fresh perspective,” said one opposition adviser. “Once the dust settles, leaders will be keen to demonstrate the UK’s continued role in the world, precisely to offset the notion of a post-Brexit decline in power.”

Palestinians seeking to increase pressure on Israel dislike Johnson’s hostility to the Boycott Disinvestment and Sanctions movement, which he described as consisting of “corduroy-jacketed lefty academics” on a visit to the region while mayor of London. On Thursday, the Times of Israel called him “a decidedly pro-Israel politician”. Supporters of Israel praised him on social media for holding to that position. Pro-Palestinians showed him posing with Israeli soldiers.

Egypt – where evidence of government repression is mounting – as well as Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, will be watching carefully to see if Johnson maintains the government’s firm commitment to trade and defence sales while remaining only mildly and generally privately critical of human rights abuses and lack of political freedoms.

UK support for the Saudi-led-coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen is another highly sensitive issue, where government policy faces increasingly close scrutiny. Overall, the UK’s economic plight makes it less likely that anything will be done to jeopardise trade and investment from the Gulf. “Boris Johnson could sell sand to Arabs,” commented one Twitter user. “Which will probably be our main export now.” Al-Sharq al-Awsat, the influential pan-Arabic newspaper, headlined its coverage with European criticism of Johnson’s appointment.

Iran

Boris Johnson remains largely an unknown figure in Tehran but when he was asked as a mayoral candidate in 2008 which country he always wanted to visit, he said: “Iran. I am a sucker for sun-bleached ruins and ancient edifices and think I could happily spend a week picking through Persepolis.”



All eyes in Iran will be on Johnson’s approach towards last year’s landmark nuclear deal with the west, with some news websites recycling his 2006 article for the Telegraph in which he appears to suggest that the west should not panic if Iran gets a nuclear bomb, though his preference would have been for the Israelis to have bombed Iranian nuclear facilities.

“In an ideal world, the Israelis would fly to Iran and repeat their magnificent success at Osirak in 1986 [see footnote], where they bombed Saddam’s nuclear capacity in its desert cradle,” he wrote in the Telegraph.

My despairing feeling is that, in the case of Iran, we should admit that it’s checkmate, as they say in Persian. The Iranians are one day going to possess a nuclear bomb; there is almost certainly nothing we can do about it; all our blustering and threats are pointless. Indeed, if all else fails, there may even be a case for giving the Iranians the bomb – that’s right: maybe it is time for the Americans to take control themselves of this unstoppable programme.

Although sanctions were officially lifted in January, Iran is facing huge challenges in reconnecting its economy to the global market, mostly because European banks are still reluctant to handle Iranian payments. Iran has been in talks with London to find a way to resolve that issue.

Examining Johnson’s past comments on Iran and the Middle East, Khordad, an Iranian news website, concluded that Johnson appeared to be an inexperienced foreign secretary. “His harsh statements against the Islamic Republic and Hezbollah, his tendencies towards Israel and business cooperations with Saudi Arabia and Arab countries show that his appointment would not benefit Tehran-London ties – it will please those in Riyadh and Tel Aviv.”

Spain

Having been without a government since last December, many in Spain have regarded the speed and treachery of the Tory party’s governmental reformation with awe. However, the news that Johnson would be at the helm of Britain’s foreign policy still came as a shock – despite the fact that Spain appears to be one of the few countries to have escaped his waspish judgment.

La Vanguardia’s London correspondent, Rafael Ramos, charitably suggested that Johnson had been given the job in the hope that he would use his “wit and charm in Brussels – which he criticises so much”. But he also pointed out that it was unclear whether Johnson was really a Eurosceptic or not.

Idafe Martín, Brussels correspondent for three big Latin American papers, was a little more direct, tweeting: “Boris Johnson as foreign secretary. Can someone remind me about the prestige and professionalism of British diplomacy?”

Idafe Martín Pérez (@IdafeMartin) Boris ministro de Exteriores. Que alguien me recuerde aquello del prestigio y la profesionalidad de la diplomacia británica

Meanwhile Anna Bosch, a former London correspondent for the Spanish state broadcaster, TVE, picked up the mood of incredulity among the UK media: “Listening to BBC Radio 4: 12 hours on, journalists still can’t get their heads around the fact that Boris Johnson is foreign secretary.”

To which someone replied: “It’s a joke, isn’t it?”

Turkey

Reaction in Turkey was never likely to be positive, given Johnson’s famous poem calling President Erdoğan a “wankerer”. He wrote the limerick in May after the Spectator magazine asked for entries to protest against Erdoğan’s attempts to prosecute a comedian in Germany. The poem also suggested Erdoğan had sex with a goat.

Daily Sabah, a newspaper with close ties to the ruling AKP government, described Johnson as “anti-Turkey” and a Eurosceptic whose appointment “raises questions about the future of Britain’s international relations”. The newspaper highlighted comments by Johnson that expressed support for the Kurdistan Workers party (PKK), a designated terrorist organisation fighting an insurgency against the Turkish government.



It also pointed to his Telegraph column praising the Syrian president, Assad, for his troops’ victory in removing Islamic State from the ancient city of Palmyra.



Turkey’s presidency issued a calm response to the appointment. “Turkey’s relationship with the United Kingdom goes beyond personalities,” said a Turkish official. “We expect Mr Johnson to act in a professional and cordial manner in his new capacity. We have no reason to doubt that the United Kingdom will continue to treat PKK as what it is – a terrorist organisation.”

Africa

Commentators across Africa have been rereading Johnson’s comments about the continent and wondering what it means for British diplomacy.

“While Johnson’s gaffes and snide remarks span the globe, he may be uniquely unfit for diplomatic dealings in Africa,” news website Quartz Africa wrote, referencing a 2002 article describing Commonwealth members on the continent as “flag-waving piccaninnies” and describing “watermelon” smiles. (Johnson later apologised for the comments.)

One radio station in South Africa said the “racist comments” would be a problem in the future.

“At some point he will have to deal with the African Union and his track record does not bode well for international relations,” warned a post on the website of Cape Talk, in Cape Town.

The host of one show apologised repeatedly to his audience when reading quotes from Johnson’s earlier writings.

Dr Jakkie Cilliers, of the Institute for Security Studies and a respected analyst in South Africa, told the station he did not think the appointment was “a wise decision”.

“He’s certainly not someone who inspires confidence … as some of [these] quotes reflect quite adequately. We are really seeing the end of empire for the UK. British influence has already dramatically shrunk over last 10 years particularly in Africa and this trend will sharpen.”

The appointment will also be watched closely in Zimbabwe. Johnson has been fiercely critical of President Mugabe’s rule, calling lavish celebrations for his 91st birthday “nauseating” and blaming the veteran leader for impoverishing the country.

A Kenyan government spokesman reacted cautiously, saying “we look at policy more than personality”. The spokesman added: “We do not expect any radical change in policy in the UK’s dealings with Kenya.”

There were more pointed comments from Uganda, which referred back to previous remarks from Johnson on colonialism. “Boris Johnson’s opinion that countries like Uganda would be better off as colonies is inconsequential,” said Ofwono Opondo, a government spokesman. “We would be more concerned if the US or Russia appointed someone like Boris. But Britain no longer wields much power globally, that’s why they have run away from the EU.”

• The Israeli airstrike that destroyed the Osirak nuclear reactor, then under construction, took place in 1981, but Boris Johnson’s column gave the year as 1986.