What the world thinks about the Harris-Trump debate

The first fight between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump was watched not only in the US but around the world.

The debate in Philadelphia featured a heated debate on foreign policy between the two presidential candidates.

From Beijing to Budapest, here’s how the debate went down, according to the BBC’s foreign correspondents.

By Steve Rosenberg, Russia editor, Moscow

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

The phrase “to eat someone for lunch” (or breakfast, or any other meal) does not exist in Russian. But one thing you will find in Moscow is a desire to get a US election result that benefits Russia.

The Kremlin will have noted (happily) that in the interview Trump dismissed the question of whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war.

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

In contrast, Harris spoke of Ukraine’s “righteous defense” and accused Vladimir Putin of having “his eyes on the rest of Europe”.

The Kremlin later said it was offended by what Putin said in the interview.

“Putin’s name is being used as one of the instruments of internal war in the US,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

“We don’t like this and we hope they will keep the name of our president this time.”

Last week, Putin said he supported Harris in the election and praised his “infectious laugh.”

A Russian state TV anchor later clarified that Putin had been “absurd” in his comments.

The presenter was dismissive of Harris’s political skills and suggested he would be better off hosting a TV cooking show.

I wonder: will it include “tyrants” who eat US presidential candidates for “lunch”…?

By Nick Beake, European journalist, Kyiv

Donald Trump’s failure, when asked on the debate stage whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war, may not have surprised people here but added to their anxiety about what a second Trump term would bring.

Trump has long boasted that he could end the conflict within 24 hours, which many Ukrainians believe would mean a much worse deal with Kyiv forced to relinquish a swath of land seized by Russia two and a half years ago.

On the contrary, the Ukrainian people will be reassured by the answers of Kamala Harris, with no sign that she will deviate from the current position of strong American support.

He took credit for the role he has played, saying he shared important intelligence with President Zelensky in the days before the all-out attack.

He then said that Trump’s position would have killed Ukraine if he was still in the White House. “If Donald Trump was president, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now.”

Publicly, current Ukrainian ministers and senior military officials have been silent in response to the debate. The symbolic US election battle is one they don’t have to weigh in on while they are consumed by the real fight at home.

It is President Zelensky himself who has gone too far in saying, or rather, what a Trump victory would mean for the Ukrainian people.

Speaking to the BBC in July, he said it would mean “hard work, but we are hard workers”.

By Lyse Doucet, senior international correspondent

America’s longest war ended in August 2021 when it struggled to withdraw its last troops, and displaced thousands of civilians, as the Taliban swept into Kabul at an alarming pace.

That debate entered the discussion and, not surprisingly, the issues were avoided, dismissed, and distorted.

Harris deflected the question “do you have any responsibility for the way you did the withdrawal?”.

As a journalist who followed the chaos that came out, I did not hear that the vice president was present when decisions were made during those weeks of crisis. But he made it clear that he agrees with President Biden’s decision to leave.

Trump boasted that he had a tough talk with “Abdul”, the “head of the Taliban” who is “the head of the Taliban.”

He appeared to be referring to Abdul Ghani Baradar, who signed the withdrawal agreement with the US. But he never led the Taliban, and has been sidelined since the Taliban took over.

The remark quickly sparked a wave of internet memes with “Abdul” and people named Abdul comparing it, with some asking “who is Abdul?”

Both contenders are focused on a flawed deal with the Taliban. The truth is that Trump’s team negotiated this exit plan; The Biden team was quick to do so.

Trump said the deal was good because it was “coming out”.

There were no good roads to travel. But the trip turned out to be a disaster and all parties are to blame.

By Laura Bicker, China Correspondent, Beijing

Kamala Harris was an unknown quantity to the leaders here and still is, even after the debate.

He has no track record on China and in the debate arena he just repeated his line that the US, not China, will win the 21st century.

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

That is why President Xi recently used the visit of American officials to call for “stability” between the two superpowers, perhaps a message to the current vice president.

The consensus among Chinese academics is that he will not deviate too much from President Biden’s slow and hard-line approach to diplomacy.

But in the debate stage he went on the attack and accused Donald Trump of “selling American chips to China to help them develop and modernize their military”.

Donald Trump has made it clear that he plans to impose 60% tariffs on Chinese goods.

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

This is the last thing China wants right now as it tries to manufacture and export goods to save its economy.

For Chinese leaders, the debate will have done little to diminish the belief that Trump represents something else they dislike – uncertainty.

But in truth, there is little hope here that US policy towards China will change much, no matter who sits in the White House.

Written by Paul Adams, international correspondent, Jerusalem

The two candidates did not deviate much from their previously stated positions last night, even as Trump added, with trademark hyperbole, that Israel would not exist in two years if his opponent became president.

Here in the Middle East, the race for the White House is being watched closely.

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

There is a long history that may be about to repeat itself.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan’s campaign team was accused of urging Iran not to release American hostages held in Tehran until he beat President Jimmy Carter, saying Reagan would give Iran a better deal.

Could the same thing happen now? Indeed, Netanyahu’s opponents believe that he is now the biggest obstacle to a ceasefire agreement.

Harris has suggested that he may be stronger in Israel than Joe Biden, something Trump has seized on, saying last night the vice president “hates Israel”.

Palestinians, deeply skeptical of Donald Trump but dismayed by the Biden administration’s failure to end the war in Gaza, may be inclined to see Harris as the lesser of two evils.

They have long rejected any notion of the US as a reliable broker in the Middle East, but they will see that Harris, unlike Trump, says he is committed to a Palestinian state.

By Nick Thorpe, Central Europe reporter, Budapest

Donald Trump offered praise to the Hungarian prime minister.

“Viktor Orban, one of the most respected men, they call him a strong man. He is a strong person. He is smart…”

Hungary’s pro-government media picked up the praise. “Great recognition!” holds the title of Magyar Nemzet.

But government-critical news site 444 cited Tim Walz, Harris’ partner.

“He [Trump] he was asked to name one world leader who was with him, Orban said. My God. That’s all we need to know.’

Viktor Orban supported Trump for president in 2016 and strongly supports him again in November.

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

Orban’s government is banking on Trump’s victory and his ability to quickly end the war in Ukraine.

“Things are changing. If Trump comes back, there will be peace. It will be established by him without the Europeans,” Balazs Orban, Viktor Orban’s political director, told the BBC in July.