(CNSNews.com) – President-elect Donald Trump early Wednesday offered a message to the international community: “We will get along with all other nations, willing to get along with us.”
Addressing supporters in New York shortly after Hillary Clinton called to concede defeat in the presidential election – an outcome that is sending shockwaves around the world – Trump said his administration would look to have good relationships with other countries.
“We will have great relationships. We expect to have great, great relationships,” he said.
“I want to tell the world community that while we will always put America first, we will deal fairly with everyone – with everyone, all people, all nations,” Trump said. “We will seek common ground, not hostility, partnership, not conflict.”
Policy positions taken by Trump during the lengthy campaign drew considerable attention abroad, where his views on issues ranging from free trade to climate change to the Iran nuclear deal were sharply at odds with those of the Obama administration and many of its international partners.
A reflection of the concern likely to be felt in some quarters was evident earlier in the evening, when the French Ambassador to Washington, Gerard Araud, posted a tweet lamenting that “After Brexit and this election, everything is now possible. The world is collapsing before our eyes.” The tweet was later deleted.
France hosted the U.N. climate megaconference a year ago that produced the Paris climate agreement which President Obama joined by executive action in September, and which came into effect last week. Trump has vowed to “cancel” the agreement, although if he meets that pledge the process of withdrawing could take up to four years.
Trump also pledged during the campaign to annul the Iran nuclear deal, which the Obama administration holds up as a major foreign policy success.
On Monday, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said the next U.S. president must be committed to implementing the deal, which entailed significant sanctions relief for Tehran – “even if he or she doesn’t want to.”
Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton, speaking on Fox News early Wednesday, predicted that America’s adversaries would try to test the new president.
“I think even during the transition period adversaries will try to take advantage of the lame-duck status of Barack Obama, and I think the likelihood of a challenge of some kind in the first three or four months of a Trump administration is almost guaranteed,” he said.
Bolton cited threats of international terrorism, nuclear, chemical and biological weapons proliferation,, the re-emergence of Russia as a competitor, and Chinese belligerence in the East and South China Sea. “All these are issues that could come to dominate a Trump presidency.”
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci) 
