After Bushís Re-election, World Leaders Stress Need for More U.S. Cooperation by Michael Coleman Their views might not perfectly reflect those of their countrymen, but foreign leaders abroad and diplomats working in Washington generally tried to put a positive spin on President Bushís reelection last month. Bush is probably less popular abroad than any U.S. president in decades, and his self-assuredósome say cockyóapproach to diplomacy has drawn the ire of political observers from Canada to the CÙte díAzur. But foreign officials who have questioned his actions in Iraq and on other matters seem to agree that there is no sense in bemoaning his second term. Many, however, stressed the need for more U.S. diplomacy and cooperation in solving some of the worldís biggest problems, including terrorism, poverty and health crises. "It is my hope that your second term will provide an opportunity to strengthen the French-American friendship," said French President Jacques Chirac in a letter to President Bush immediately after the Nov. 2 election. "The destiny of our two peoples has been intimately connected since the earliest days of American independence ." Animosity has been brewing between the leaderships of France and the United States since Bushís decision to attack Iraq without U.N. approval. Franceís refusal to send troops to Iraq has drawn the ire of U.S. leaders, while the French public has castigated Bush as a less-than-intelligent cowboy president who is wreaking havoc in the world. Those fires of animosity must cool in a second Bush term, Chirac seemed to say in his letter. "We will not be able to find satisfactory answers to the many challenges we are facing today without a close trans-Atlantic partnership," Chirac added. "The United States and France are called upon to play an essential role in that regard. We share the same ambition of guaranteeing peace, security and prosperity, in a spirit of solidarity, for the greatest number of people. I am convinced that together we can succeed." German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder also called for partnership, and mentioned one area of global concern that some observers have accused Bush of ignoring completelyóglobal warming. Bush outraged much of the world community with his decision to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. "As you enter your second term of office, the world faces great challenges: our security and stability are threatened by international terrorism, the danger of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, regional crises, as well as by poverty, climate change and epidemics," Schroeder wrote. "These challenges can only be tackled through joint effort." Schroederís letter didnít mention that polls in Germany a week before the election showed that 68 percent of Germans were hoping that Democrat John Kerry would win the election. Only 4 percent of those polled said they favored Bush. Turkey, a country whose longstanding friendship with the United States has been strained by the war in Iraq, is also hoping for the best under a second Bush term. Turkey angered the Bush administration when its Parliament refused to allow U.S. forces to deploy from southeastern Turkey to Iraq in early 2003. And Turkish officials have complained that the U.S. war on terrorism has done nothing to quell Kurdish terrorists in northern Iraq. However, Tuluy Tanc, minister-consular at the Turkish Embassy in Washington, said in an interview that the two countries can work past their differences because of a longstanding foundation of friendship. "We think that President Bushís reelection will be very good," he told The Washington Diplomat. "It will allow for continuity in relations and continuity in policies." But thatís not to say Turkey would have been disappointed if Democrat John Kerry had won the election. "Democrat or Republican, it doesnít matter," said the Turkish diplomat. "Thatís because the foundation of the relationship is friendship." In October, Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to favor Bush in the upcoming election when he told reporters that terrorists were rooting for a Bush defeat. "I consider the activities of terrorists in Iraq are not as much aimed at coalition forces but more personally against President Bush," Putin said at a news conference after a regional summit in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe. "International terrorism has as its goal to prevent the election of President Bush to a second term," he said. "If they achieve that goal, then that will give international terrorism a new impulse and extra power." But Putin never actually endorsed the president and made it clear that the Russian Federation remained strongly opposed to the war in Iraq. After the election, he expressed gratitude to American voters. "I can only feel joy that the American people did not allow itself to be intimidated and made the most sensible decision," Putin said at a Kremlin news conference. Some Russian political observers have speculated that Putin was rooting for Bush because he was less likely to interfere in matters involving Chechnya. They also said Bush would be less likely than Kerry to publicly oppose what many have said is Putinís tightening grip on free speech in Russia (see November 2004 issue of The Washington Diplomat). Russian Embassy officials could not be reached for comment. A spokesman for the Italian Embassy in Washington said that although less than half of Italians support Bush, Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi congratulated Bush after the election. Ciampi said only "congratulations to Bush" and declined to comment further, according to published reports. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi also reportedly phoned the U.S. president with congratulations, but some in Italy find it interesting that Berlusconi, arguably Bushís biggest booster in Italy, hasnít publicly said anything about the American presidentís reelection. The Italian center-right government openly said it supported Bush and expressed happiness with his reelection. Italyís center-left opposition, however, voiced hopes for a more diplomatic and forgiving approach to foreign policy in the presidentís second term. In Pakistan, the official government line on Bushís reelection is positive. U.S.-Pakistani relations are deemed as absolutely critical in the American governmentís war on terrorism in the Middle East. Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding in the mountains of Pakistan, and the countryís government is helping to contain him and crush other al Qaeda terrorists. "We have worked with Bush for more than three years now, and have developed very close interaction," said Mohammad Sadiq, the embassyís deputy chief of mission, in an interview. "Now we can keep that interaction with the same set of people." Sadiq said the people of Pakistan were of mixed minds when it came to the U.S. presidential election, "but there was a lot of interest in the election," he said. "The Pakistan-U.S. relationship transcends party lines. The stakes are too high." Sadiq said both countriesí governments are fiercely dedicated to stemming terrorism, and Pakistan is also hoping for expanded trade with the United States. "We are now talking about a free trade agreement," he noted. Kamal Kharazi, Iranís foreign minister, gave Iranís first formal reaction to the election on Nov. 6. In 2002, Bush described Iran as part of an "axis of evil" along with Saddam Husseinís Iraq and North Korea. Kharazi, according to the news service Agence France-Presse, urged Bush to undergo a "change of behavior" in his second term. He said the election was "an internal matter for the United States and the American people." But Kharazi also said that "what is important to us is a change of behavior. In that respect, we hope for positive developments in the second part of Mr. Bushís presidency." Michael Coleman is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C.