The Margin: Messages to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are pouring in from world leaders after election result is finally called

The wire service projected Biden as the winner late Saturday morning Eastern time after determining that the 77-year old Democrat had foreclosed any path to victory in Pennsylvania for President Donald Trump. The projection that the Keystone State’s 20 votes in the Electoral College would go Biden’s way put the native Pennsylvanian past the required 270-vote majority.

Nevada was called soon afterward, leaving Biden with a projected 290 votes. Yet unawarded by the AP are the Electoral College votes of Georgia, North Carolina and Alaska.

Among the first to tweet congratulations was the geographically closest world leader, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau:

Ireland’s president, Michael Higgins, tweeted a statement welcoming Biden. The former vice president is considered a native son of the country, not only because of his Irish Catholic heritage, but also due to his promise to support Irish causes upon election. Biden has said he would not make a trade deal with the U.K. if any final Brexit deal upsets the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, which ended the decades-old “Troubles” in Northern Ireland.

Ireland’s taoiseach, or prime minister, Micheál Martin, spoke enthusiastically of the possibility of a Biden presidency in an interview on Saturday with RTÉ  News, saying the former vice president was “as Irish as you can get in terms of his background” and then tweeting individual congratulations to Biden and Harris:

It was nothing but good wishes from U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who — like Trump, with whom he has often been described as politically simpatico — has battled a coronavirus infection this year:

Leaders from France, Italy and Spain also tweeted:

Slightly stronger words came from Pablo Iglesias, Spain’s deputy prime minister and leader of the left-wing populist party Podemos, said that if Biden were indeed confirmed as president that would be “good news for the planet.” He added that the “global far right” has lost its “most powerful political asset.”

Many world leaders expressed disappointment when Trump announced in 2017 that the U.S. would pull out of the Paris Agreement on climate change. That exit became official just this week, but Biden has pledged to rejoin the voluntary global pact.

The following tweet came from the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo:

The pandemic year has heightened tensions between the U.S. and other countries and global organizations, notably after Trump announced he would cut payments to the World Health Organization over its handling of the outbreak and took to calling the novel coronavirus instead “the China virus,” as his campaign sought to portray Biden as more aligned with Chinese policy preferences.

From the archives (June 2020): Bolton book adds urgency to Trump bid to depict himself as a China hawk and to paint Biden as a Beijing apologist

Also read: Perceptions of the U.S. around the world are at or near historic lows, Pew finds

From Germany came relief that “the waiting is over,” with the country’s foreign minister, Heiko Mass, speaking of a trans-Atlantic “new beginning”:

Also tweeting was the president of the European Commission:

And NATO’s Jens Stoltenberg:

No message had yet been offered by the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has enjoyed a close relationship with Trump and particularly Trump son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, but who has also appeared to tread carefully toward a potential Biden presidency.

The twitter account of Russian President Vladimir Putin also posted no tweet linked to the U.S. election outcome.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose country signed a military deal with Trump a week before the election and has also been seen to enjoy a close relationship with Trump, directed his attention to the vice president–elect, Sen. Kamala Harris, whose mother was born in India:

Here are a few more tweets from global leaders spanning time zones:

And here’s one from the account of Iran’s supreme leader, which put aside any congratulatory tone and focused instead on a criticism of the entire process:

The People’s Daily, China, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the country’s Communist Party shared several tweets. China, of course has been locked in trade tensions with Trump throughout most of his presidency:

It tweeted that Biden had gained enough electoral votes to become president and the historic milestone of Vice president Elect Kamala Harris:

And then a little swipe at Trump:

The Margin: Spontaneous gatherings across the U.S. as AP and other news organizations declare Biden the winner of teh presidential election — watch