Global reaction to Biden stepping down: Plaudits and gratitude

Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said he “respects” Biden’s decision to put the country ahead of himself, praised his leadership of NATO, and said he looks forward to working with Biden until the next president is inaugurated in January.

“Huge thank you to [Biden] for being a great friend to Ukraine,” the Ukrainian MP Inna Sovsun said. “Europeans should always remain grateful for what Joe Biden has done with and for Europe,” ex-German ambassador to the US, Wolfgang Ischinger, said on X. The former British MP Rory Stewart said Biden had made a “great decision.”

French President Emmanuel Macron wrote in a letter to Biden shared on Monday that he admired the president’s “courage” for his decision, and hailed his work to bolster NATO and US alliances despite multiple geopolitical crises around the world.

Andrei Kozyrev, a former Russian Foreign Minister turned a loud critic of Putin’s authoritarian regime, applauded Biden’s decision, saying simply: “Democracy works.”

The loud support could have been a sigh of relief, as many European officials quietly believed that he would not be re-elected in November, potentially opening the door for a Trump White House that would be much less interested in working with Europe or funding for Ukraine.

“We all want Biden to have a second term to avoid dealing with Trump again, but this isn’t really reassuring,” one EU official told Politico about Biden’s catastrophic debate performance in June.

Many European officials had quietly accepted the growing likelihood of a Trump victory, launching a concerted reach out campaign to Trump’s advisors to try to convince them of the importance of continued support for Ukraine and NATO.

UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer posted on X that he respected the decision, and he hoped to keep working with Biden through his presidency.

“I respect President Biden’s decision and I look forward to us working together during the remainder of his presidency. I know that, as he has done throughout his remarkable career, he will have made his decision based on what he believes is best for the American people.”

Even as tensions have grown between Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, many Israeli politicians thanked the president for his support for Israel.

President Isaac Herzog thanked Biden for his “friendship and steadfast support” for Israel throughout his career. ““As the first US President to visit Israel in wartime, as a recipient of the Israeli Presidential Medal of Honor, and as a true ally of the Jewish people, he is a symbol of the unbreakable bond between our two peoples,” Herzog wrote on X.

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett said Biden is a “true friend of Israel who stood by us in our most difficult moments.” “Thank you for everything.”

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he had “utmost respect” for Biden, calling his decision to withdraw a “personal” one, Reuters reported on Monday. Lula also underscored that Brazil’s relationship with the US should not be dependent on who wins in November.

“Whether it’s a Democratic candidate or Trump, our relationship will be a civilized relationship between two important countries that have a centuries-old diplomatic relationship that we want to maintain,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs took a different tone in reacting to the announcement while on TV in the country, saying it wasn’t clear Biden was acting voluntarily.

“The decision that was made, look at what the so-called American democracy brought us to: after all, you and I can’t even say whether it was made by Biden or if it was made for Biden. Now the whole world is working with the document that was published on his behalf, but, you will agree, it was not an oral statement, it was not a voice statement, it was not a statement made in the presence of journalists,” the spokesperson said on Solovylov LIVE.