US elections: world leaders who have not congratulated Biden

With Joe Biden projected to win the US presidential election on Saturday, many world leaders were quick to congratulate him on his victory.

But not everyone has been so enthusiastic; indeed, some have stood out in its absence. Below are some key international figures who have not sent messages of support or who have been lukewarm in their congratulations.

Some have gone even further, congratulating Trump or endorsing unsubstantiated claims he has made about voter fraud. At least one minister has paid for his comments with his work.

Four years ago, Putin was one of the first to congratulate Donald Trump on his election victory, but this time there has been no tweet, telegram or phone call to Biden.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the reason for the delay was legal challenges launched by the Trump campaign.

“We believe that the right thing to do would be to wait for the official result of the elections,” he told reporters.

But Steve Rosenberg of the BBC in Moscow says there is a suspicion that the lack of congratulations reflects the fact that Moscow is not enthusiastic about the result.

Biden is a vocal critic of Moscow and recently identified Russia as the biggest threat to the United States.

Trump has rarely criticized Russia or Putin, and Russia was accused of interfering in the 2016 election to get Trump elected.

Jansa has made no secret of her support for Trump, including tweeting his congratulations to the incumbent president on Wednesday, long before vote counts were close to complete.

Since then, he has repeated allegations of voter fraud carried out by Democrats.

On Saturday, he was more conciliatory, describing the United States as Slovenia’s strategic partner and saying that friendly relations would remain whoever was president.

But he still hasn’t congratulated Biden.

Jansa of the far-right anti-immigration Slovenian Democratic Party is an ally of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has also voiced his support for Trump in the past.

Trump’s wife, Melania, is Slovenian.

Other Slovenian leaders, including President Borut Pahor, have congratulated Biden, as have Orban.

Helme announced his resignation Monday after he and his son, Finance Minister Martin Helme, made allegations of widespread fraud in the US elections on a radio show Sunday.

Helme Senior also repeated the unfounded corruption allegations against Biden and his son Hunter.

His son said that “all normal people should speak up” about the alleged fakes.

“There is no point in talking about any kind of democracy or the rule of law if elections can be so rude, so blatant and massively manipulated,” he added.

Both are members of the far-right Conservative People’s Party, of which Helme Junior is also the leader. The party is in coalition with the Center Party and another right-wing party,

Prime Minister Juri Ratas has criticized the two politicians and congratulated Biden.

But he failed to fire them, critics argue, because he relies on his party’s support to stay in power.

Helme senior said he was resigning due to “defamation” he faced in the Estonian media.

Bolsonaro is often seen as an ally of Trump, so much so that he has been described as the “Trump of the tropics.”

The fact that the Brazilian leader has so far not congratulated Biden is therefore not surprising.

He has crossed swords with the former vice president in the past, describing his call during an electoral debate for the United States to pressure Brazil to better protect the Amazon rainforest as “disastrous and unnecessary.”

Brazilian media reports citing government sources suggested that Bolsonaro planned to wait until Trump’s legal challenges were completed before addressing the issue.

López Obrador is another Latin American leader who has tried to maintain good relations with Trump, despite tensions over the US president’s hardline policy on migrants and, in particular, his promise to build a wall along the border of the two countries.

Therefore, the Mexican leader has been cautious about the US elections and said on Sunday that he would wait for “all legal issues” to be resolved.

“We do not want to be reckless. We do not want to act lightly,” he told a press conference, adding that Mexico had a “very good relationship” with both candidates.

López Obrador’s equivocal position has drawn criticism from several high-ranking US Democrats, and Texas Congressman Joaquín Castro described it as “an impressive diplomatic failure.”

Netanyahu is another world leader who has never hidden his affinity for Trump.

And while he congratulated Biden, observers have noted the absence of the words “president-elect” and “vice-president-elect” in his message.

“” I would like to open with regards to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. For almost 40 years I have had a long and warm personal relationship with Joe Biden and know him as a great friend of the state of Israel, “he said in a video statement.

Netanyahu concluded the message by paying tribute to Trump for his friendship with Israel and with him personally, and thanking him for recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, reversing decades of American policy, and for his hard-line stance on Iran.

The Saudi crown prince congratulated Biden on his election victory, but only on Sunday, 24 hours after the news. Other Middle Eastern leaders responded on Saturday.

It was noted that Mohammed bin Salman had wasted no time in congratulating Tanzanian President John Magufuli on his re-election that day.

Biden has vowed to reassess relations with Saudi Arabia, in particular over the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the civil war in Yemen.

President Xi sent congratulations to Trump in 2016 the day after his election victory.

But this time China has so far refrained from giving any reaction to the US election results.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin pointed to Biden’s victory declaration at a briefing on Monday, but said Beijing will observe as “American laws and procedures” are followed.

Biden is expected to be more measured and nuanced in his approach to China while maintaining a tough stance.

Trump has harshly criticized China for the coronavirus and engaged in a trade war, imposing tariffs on numerous Chinese imports.

There has been no response to the election result from Mr. Kim, in fact, since Monday morning, North Korean state media had been silent on the US elections.

However, Donald Trump’s victory in 2016 was not mentioned until two days after his election.

Trump and Kim have had a stormy relationship, although they have maintained contact through three historic face-to-face meetings.

However, Biden has described Kim as a bully and says he is not interested in any personal diplomacy with him. The North Korean leader has called Biden “a low IQ fool.”