LONDON—The world faces a starkly different America led by a President Donald Trump.

The remarkable triumph of the politically untested businessman was welcomed in some countries, such as Russia, while in others it was a major shock.

When Trump takes office in January, world leaders will confront a man whose stated views represent a sharp break with U.S. foreign policy orthodoxy. He has cozied up to Russian President Vladimir Putin, warned stunned NATO allies they will have to pay for their own protection, floated a ban on Muslims entering the U.S. and vowed to make the Mexican government finance a multibillion-dollar border wall.

These changes, and others, have the potential to radically remake U.S. policy — a prospect that has given stability-loving partners a cascading case of the jitters.

Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent Trump a telegram Wednesday morning congratulating him on his victory.

According to RT News, he expressed confidence that the dialogue between Moscow and Washington meets the interests of both Russia and the United States.

Putin said Moscow is ready to try to restore good relations with the United States in the wake of the election of Donald Trump.

Putin said Wednesday at a ceremony accepting the credentials of new ambassadors that “we aware that it is a difficult path, in view of the unfortunate degradation of relations between the Russian Federation and the United States.”

Putin said, “it is not our fault that Russian-American relations are in such a 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.

“We of course regard with satisfaction that the better candidate of the two presented to the American voters was victorious,” said Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of Russia’s nationalist Liberal Democratic party, according to the Interfax news agency.

Mexico

Trump’s win was particularly startling in Mexico, where his remarks calling Mexican immigrants criminals and “rapists” were a deep insult to national pride. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto congratulated the U.S. on its election — though not directly the winner.

Pena Nieto has sent a series of tweets repeating his readiness to work with Trump “in favour of the bilateral relationship.” He says Mexico and the U.S. “are friends, partners and allies who should continue collaborating for the competitiveness and development of North America.”

The value of Mexico’s peso currency plunged sharply after the election of Trump, who has denounced the North American Free Trade Agreement that has led to billions of dollars in trade between the two nations.

Trump has suggested slapping a 35 per cent tax on automobiles and auto parts made by U.S. companies in Mexico, and financial analysts have predicted a Trump win will threaten billions of dollars in cross-border trade.

Trump’s victory is “as close to a national emergency as Mexico has faced in many decades,” Mexican analyst Alejandro Hope said.

Mexican Treasury Secretary Jose Antonio Meade held a news conference Wednesday morning, urging against “premature reactions.” He said the election result won’t immediately affect trade and said Mexico “is in a position of strength” to face whatever may come.

Philippines

The Philippines’ foul-mouthed president has welcomed Donald Trump’s election victory, calling him a fellow curser.

Rodrigo Duterte, during a visit to Malaysia on Wednesday, says “Long live Mr. Trump! We both curse at the slightest reason. We are alike.”

Duterte, who has had a difficult relationship with the United States, has told President Barack Obama in the past to “go to hell.” He has criticized U.S. officials for expressing concern about his brutal crackdown on illegal drug sellers and users.

Philippine officials said Wednesday that Duterte has decided to reduce the number of joint military exercises with the United States.

MIDDLE EAST

Trump’s electoral triumph was also felt strongly in the volatile Middle East, where multiple crises are unfolding.

Iran

Iran’s semi-official news agency Tasnim has quoted the country’s foreign minister as saying that the United States needs to implement its part of multilateral international commitments under last year’s historic nuclear deal.

The comments Wednesday by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif came after businessman Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president.

During the campaign, Trump has criticized the deal and suggested he would try to renegotiate it. Zarif was quoted as saying that any U.S. president “should have a correct understanding of realities of the world and our region and face them realistically.”

Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has congratulated 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.”

Earlier, a key ally in Netanyahu’s centre-right coalition, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, said Tump’s victory means that “the era of a Palestinian state is over.” The Palestinians want a state in lands Israel captured in 1967.

Netanyahu has said he is willing to negotiate a border deal, but has retracted offers made by his predecessors while pressing ahead with Jewish settlement expansion on war-won land.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Wednesday that he hopes “peace will be achieved during his term.

Taliban

The Taliban have called on Donald Trump to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan once he takes office as president.

In a statement sent to The Associated Press, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Wednesday that a Trump administration “should allow Afghans to become a free nation and have relationships with other countries based on non-interference in each other’s affairs.”

The Afghan conflict is in its 16th year. The Taliban have spread their footprint across Afghanistan in the two years since most international combat troops withdrew.

President Barack Obama expanded U.S. troops’ mandate to enable them to work more closely on the battlefield with their Afghan counterparts, and to conduct counterterrorism operations against Al Qaeda, Daesh and the Taliban.

EUROPE

In Europe, NATO allies 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.

Germany

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has offered President-elect Donald Trump “close co-operation” on the basis of shared trans-Atlantic values that she says include respect for human dignity regardless of people’s origin, gender or religion.

Merkel told reporters in Berlin on Wednesday that the campaign which ended in Trump’s victory featured “confrontations that were difficult to bear.”

Merkel stressed Germany’s close historical connection with the United States. She said: “Germany and America are connected by values: democracy, freedom, respect for the law and for the dignity of human beings, independently of origin, skin colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation or political views.”

She added: “On the basis of these values, I am offering the future president of the United States of America, Donald Trump, close co-operation.”

She said the partnership with the U.S. “is a foundation stone of German foreign policy.”

France

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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 globalization,” he said.

Ireland

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 U.S. 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.”

U.K.

British Prime Minister Theresa May issued a statement saying she looks forward to working with Trump and building on the two countries’ long-standing “special relationship.” Her predecessor, David Cameron, had been outspoken in his criticism of Trump during the primary campaign.

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.

ASIA

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.

China

Chinese state media and government-backed commentators had signalled Beijing’s preference for a Trump win. Like Russia, China is seen as favouring 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 U.S. “pivot” to Asia aimed at strengthening U.S. 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 minimizing the risks that unnecessary conflicts with other countries may bring to the U.S.,” Mei wrote.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has conveyed his congratulations to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, saying he looked forward to working with Trump on promoting ties in a “constructive” way that avoids conflict and confrontation.

During his campaign, Trump accused China of illegally subsidizing exports, manipulating its currency and stealing intellectual property.

State broadcaster CCTV reported Wednesday that Xi said the two biggest economies in the world shared common interests and shouldered a “special and important responsibility in upholding world peace.”

Xi says: “I highly value China-U.S. relations and am looking forward to working with you to expand co-operation in all fields, including in bilateral, regional and global aspects.” He says he expects they would “manage differences in a constructive way, in the spirit of non-conflict, nonconfrontation, mutual respect, co-operation and win-win.”

Indonesia

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 United States. 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 normalization with the United States 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 Raúl 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.”

Cambodia

Cambodia’s long-serving authoritarian Prime Minister Hun Sen has congratulated Donald Trump on his U.S. presidential election victory.

On his official Facebook page, Hun Sen called Trump “your excellency” and pointed out that he’d announced his support for the Republican candidate several days earlier.

He says “American voters have shown their choice to elect your excellency ... My support for your candidacy is not wrong either.”

Hun Sen has kept a tight grip on Cambodian politics for three decades by silencing critics with lawsuits, intimidation and other tactics.

Pakistan

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has congratulated businessman Donald Trump on being elected U.S. president, calling his win “historic.”

Sharif, a businessman himself, praised Trump’s commitment to free enterprise.

The Pakistani leader says Wednesday that Trump’s election “is indeed the triumph of the American people and their enduring faith in the ideals of democracy, freedom, human rights and free enterprise.”

REST OF THE WORLD

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.”

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