What did the world think about the Harris vs. Trump debate?

The first showdown between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump attracted attention not only in the United States but around the world.

The Philadelphia debate featured a tense exchange between the two presidential candidates on foreign policy.

According to the BBC’s foreign correspondents, the discussion went like this from Beijing to Budapest.

Steve Rosenberg, Russia Editor, Moscow

Kamala Harris told Donald Trump that Putin is a “dictator who will eat you for lunch.”

The expression “eating someone for lunch (or breakfast, or any other meal)” does not exist in Russian, but one thing is clear in Moscow: a desire for the US election results to benefit Russia.

The Kremlin will be (pleased) to note that during the debate Trump dodged the question of whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war.

“I want to stop the war,” Trump replied.

In contrast, Harris spoke of Ukraine’s “legitimate defense” and accused President Vladimir Putin of “looking to the rest of Europe.”

The Kremlin later claimed it was uncomfortable with the mention of Putin during the debate.

“Putin’s name is being used as a tool for internal conflict within the United States,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told me.

“We don’t like this. We want our president’s name removed from this.”

Last week, Putin insisted he would support Harris in the election and praised her “infectious laugh.”

A Russian state television presenter later clarified that Putin’s comments were “somewhat sarcastic”.

The host downplayed Harris’ political skills and suggested she would be better off hosting a cooking show on TV.

I’m curious. Is it about a “dictator” having a US presidential candidate “for lunch”…?

Nick Beeck, Europe correspondent in Kyiv

Donald Trump’s refusal to answer a question on the debate stage about whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war may not have surprised people here, but it reinforced fears about what a second Trump term might bring.

President Trump has long boasted that he could end the conflict within 24 hours, but many Ukrainians believe that would mean an incredibly bad deal with Kiev, forcing Russia to give up vast swathes of land it has seized over the past two and a half years.

In contrast, Ukrainians will be reassured by Kamala Harris, who shows no signs of deviating from her current staunch support for the United States.

She claimed to have shared crucial intelligence with President Zelenskyy just days before the full-scale invasion, and claimed credit for a role she had already played.

She further argued that Trump’s position would have been fatal for Ukraine if he were still in the White House: “If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting in Kiev right now.”

Ukraine’s current ministers and military leaders have maintained public silence on the debate — no need to meddle in the metaphorical US election campaign while they are busy fighting the actual battle at home.

So far, it has been President Zelensky himself who has been the clearest, if somewhat evasive, about what a Trump victory would mean for the Ukrainian people.

It will be “a lot of work, but we are hard workers,” he told the BBC in a July interview.

Lise Doucet, International Correspondent

America’s longest war ended in August 2021 as the Taliban advanced on Kabul with alarming speed, forcing the US to scramble to withdraw its last troops and evacuate thousands of civilians.

This debacle was the subject of debate and, unsurprisingly, the issues were avoided, dismissed or distorted.

Harris deflected from the question of whether she bore any responsibility for how the withdrawal unfolded.

As a reporter who has followed the chaotic withdrawal closely, I have not heard of the vice president being in the room when the decision was made in those final fateful weeks, but she has made it clear that she agrees with President Biden’s decision to withdraw.

Trump boasted that he had made tough negotiations with Abdul, who was “a Taliban leader” and “still is a Taliban leader.”

He appears to be referring to Abdul Ghani Baradar, who signed the withdrawal agreement with the US, but who never led the Taliban and has been sidelined since the Taliban took power.

The statement immediately sparked a wave of internet memes featuring “Abdul,” with people named Abdul weighing in and some asking, “Who is Abdul?”

Both candidates focused on the flawed agreement with the Taliban. The truth is that it was the Trump team that negotiated the withdrawal plan and the Biden team that rushed it through.

Trump said the deal was good because “we’re getting out.”

There was no good way to do it, but the departure was a disaster, with blame on all sides.

By Laura Bicker, China correspondent, Beijing

Kamala Harris was an unknown quantity to leaders here, and will remain an unknown quantity after the debate.

She has no track record on China, and on the debate stage she simply repeated her argument that the United States, not China, will win the race of the 21st century.

The vice president represents something China doesn’t like: uncertainty.

That is why President Xi Jinping recently used a visit by U.S. officials to call for “stability” between the two superpowers, perhaps as a message to the current vice president.

The prevailing view among Chinese scholars is that she will not deviate significantly from President Biden’s slow and steady diplomatic approach.

But on the debate stage, she went on the offensive, accusing Donald Trump of “selling American semiconductors to China to help build and modernize its military.”

Donald Trump has unveiled plans to impose a 60% tariff on Chinese products.

China retaliated, and many studies suggest this caused economic pain on both sides.

China is trying to manufacture and export goods to save its economy, which is the last thing China wants right now.

For Chinese leaders, the debate will do little to assuage their feeling that Trump represents something else they don’t like: unpredictability.

But the reality is, there is little hope for any major changes in U.S. policy toward China, regardless of who sits in the White House.

Paul Adams, Jerusalem International Correspondent

Neither candidate deviated much from their previously stated positions last night, although Mr Trump added, with characteristic hyperbole, that Israel would cease to exist within two years if his opponent became president.

Here in the Middle East, the fight for the White House is a hot topic of interest.

With the war in Gaza escalating and no ceasefire agreement in place, some of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s critics suspect the Israeli prime minister is deliberately stalling until after the election in the hope that Trump will be more sympathetic to Israel than Harris.

I have a feeling that history is about to repeat itself.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan’s campaign urged Iran not to release American hostages being held in Tehran until he defeated Jimmy Carter, and he was suspected of saying Reagan would give Iran better terms.

Is something similar happening now? Indeed, Netanyahu’s opponents see him as the biggest obstacle to a ceasefire agreement right now.

Ms Harris has suggested she might take a tougher stance on Israel than Joe Biden and President Trump seized on this, saying last night that VP Harris “hates Israel”.

Palestinians are deeply skeptical of Donald Trump but are disappointed with the Biden administration’s inability to end the war in Gaza and may be inclined to see Harris as the lesser of two evils.

They have long since abandoned the idea of ​​the United States being an honest broker in the Middle East, but they will be aware that, unlike Trump, Harris has said she is committed to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Nick Thorpe, Central Europe Correspondent, Budapest

Donald Trump praised the Hungarian Prime Minister.

“Viktor Orbán is one of the most respected figures, he is called a strong man. He is a tough man. Smart…”

Hungary’s pro-government media picked up on the tribute, with “Big Recognition!” reading a headline in Magyar Nemzet newspaper.

However, the government-critical news portal 444 quoted Harris’ running mate, Tim Walz.

“He (Trump) was asked to name one world leader who was there and he said Orban. God. That’s all we want to know.”

Viktor Orban supported Trump in the 2016 presidential election and strongly endorsed him again in November.

The two men met for the second time this year on July 12 at Trump’s Florida home, after Orban visited Kiev, Moscow and Beijing in succession.

Orbán’s government is pinning its hopes both on Trump’s victory and his ability to bring about a swift end to the Ukraine war.

“The situation is changing. When Trump comes back there will be peace. It will be established by Trump without the Europeans,” Balas Orban, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s political minister, told the BBC in July.