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Biden Tells World Leaders 'It's Not America Alone' Anymore

President-elect Biden takes questions from reporters at the Queen Theater in Wilmington, Del.
Joe Raedle
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Getty Images
President-elect Biden takes questions from reporters at the Queen Theater in Wilmington, Del.

World leaders continued to reach out to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday even as President Trump still contests the election results.

Biden said Tuesday he's already spoken with six world leaders, including Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Ireland.

"I'm letting them know that America is back," Biden told reporters. "We're going to be back in the game. It's not America alone."

Biden has routinely criticized Trump's "America First" approach to foreign policy. Biden argues the president has hurt the United States by acting unilaterally. Trump has insisted that " 'America First' does not mean America alone."

Biden talked to the key allies about working together to confront the coronavirus pandemic and climate change, his campaign said. He talked to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson — a friend of Trump's — about the 2021 G-7 summit. And Biden emphasized transatlantic ties, including through NATO, with Johnson, President Emmanuel Macron of France and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany.

Several of the leaders had already issued public congratulations, which are routine for the incoming president-elect of the United States. But this year is anything but routine, given that Trump has yet to concede.

Trump has clashed with leaders such as Merkel and Macron because of his transactional approach to international relations, and his decisions to pull out of the multilateral Paris climate accord and the Iran nuclear deal.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the leaders of China, Brazil and Mexico have remained silent about Biden's victory in last week's election.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Franco Ordoñez is a White House Correspondent for NPR's Washington Desk. Before he came to NPR in 2019, Ordoñez covered the White House for McClatchy. He has also written about diplomatic affairs, foreign policy and immigration, and has been a correspondent in Cuba, Colombia, Mexico and Haiti.