Barack Obama’s re-election was welcomed in London, Paris and Berlin. There was relief in the German capital, quiet satisfaction in London, and in Paris, the National Assembly broke into spontaneous applause when word came through.
UK
There had been concerns in Britain that Mitt Romney’s foreign policy declarations could have led to instability. Congratulating Mr Obama, British prime minister David Cameron, speaking in the Middle East, said: “I’ve enjoyed working with him, I think he’s a very successful US president and I look forward to working with him in the future.”
Mr Cameron and Liberal Democrat deputy prime minister Nick Clegg chose to emphasise their desire for a joint US-UK push for a new trade deal between the EU and US.
Labour leader Ed Miliband said Mr Obama had secured a “great victory based on building a fairer economy and optimism about what politics can achieve”, while his brother, David – a former foreign secretary – said it was “a win for rationality, unity and hope”.
Germany
Relief was palpable also in Germany with Chancellor Angela Merkel inviting the US leader to visit Berlin again.
“In recent years we’ve worked together in a close and friendly way ... and I look forward to continuing that in the future,” said Dr Merkel.
German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle, speaking in New York, said he was looking forward to new initiatives for economic growth from the second Obama administration and called for fresh moves on global disarmament.
“On this we’ve come some way in the last two years but now a more energetic step has to be taken,” he said. “America has a great talent for not looking back but forward, optimistically, to get stuck in. I would hope that political blockades, many motivated by the elected, have now passed.”
France
President François Hollande sent his “warmest congratulations” to Mr Obama, saying this was “an important moment for the US, but also for the world”.
“Yes!” screamed the front page of the left-wing Libération newspaper over a full-page picture of a beaming Obama. The paper’s editorial writer, in common with many other analysts in France, noted that Obama had succeeded “where Sarkozy, Zapatero and Brown failed” – winning re-election “in the midst of a major economic crisis the US still hasn’t emerged from”.
Russia
In Moscow one newspaper announced “Cold war cancelled” summing up its reaction to Mr Romney’s defeat. Mr Obama’s win was welcomed by Russia’s ruling elite as paving the way for “predictable” relations, a contrast to a potential ratcheting up of tensions under Mr Romney, who had labelled Russia as America’s “number one geopolitical foe”.
“I am happy that the president of a very big influential state is not a man who considers Russia to be its enemy number one,” said prime minister Dmitry Medvedev.
The Kremlin “positively” welcomed Mr Obama’s re-election, said Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian president Vladimir Putin.
South America
Little reflects the shifts under way in global politics more than the declining influence of the US in its own backyard, where interest in the election was at best half-hearted.
Latin leaders, led by presidents Dilma Rousseff and Felipe Calderón of Brazil and Mexico respectively, congratulated Mr Obama but will know that his administration’s preoccupations in the Middle East and its pivot towards Asia means an increase in US interest in Latin American affairs is unlikely
Much of Latin America’s interest in Tuesday night’s count focused on the growing importance of the Latino community, now the biggest minority group in the US and whose support for Obama played a key role in his victory in a string of swing states.
* Mark Hennessy in London, Derek Scally in Berlin, Ruadhán Mac Cormaic in Paris, Jennifer Rankin in Moscow and Tom Hennigan in São Paulo