How world leaders see Obama's coming
Enormous excitement and expectation about the potential for positive change, heralded the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America USA
As millions of people watch Barack Obama's swearing-in ceremony, statesmen from around the world could not but react to the inauguration which is a watershed moment in American history.
To the Prime Minister of United Kingdom, Gordon Brown: "The whole world is watching the inauguration of President Obama, witnessing a new chapter in both American history and the world's history.
President Nicolas Sarkozy of France said: "He's not only the first black American president but he sets out with the determination to solve the world's problems. "We are eager for him to get to work so that with him we can change the world."
The Foreign Minister of Russia, Sergei Lavrov added: "We are ready for this. Our president confirmed this in a telephone conversation with Barack Obama straight after he was elected. I think there will be additional telephone and not only telephone - contacts between our leaders."
Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany could also not hide her feelings: "I want to say that I believe today is a very special day, not only for the United States of America, but also a special day for billions of people all over the world."
"The fact that a coloured president is being inaugurated and the fact that we are looking at an intensive transatlantic co-operation is something that not only moves the heads and thoughts but also the hearts. And I want to wish the new American President Barack Obama all the best, much strength and health and God's blessing.
And I want to say that Germany is prepared to liaise with him very intensely and very openly."
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy said: "Many hopes and expectations have been piled on him, not just by the American people but also the rest of the world. The thing to do is to send him the most affectionate and cordial wishes so that he can fulfill these expectations."
Pope Benedict XVI of Vatican said: "I pray that you will be confirmed in your resolve to promote understanding, co-operation and peace among the nations, so that all may share in the banquet of life which God wills to set for the whole human family.
I offer cordial good wishes, together with the assurance of my prayers that Almighty God will grant you unfailing wisdom and strength in the exercise of your high responsibilities."
But a cautious reaction came from Iran as the Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki stated: "We prefer to wait and see what the practical policies of the American government will be".
Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Olmert said: "Obama has mobilised the greatest amount of goodwill and support in all walks of life. This mobilisation of good will is becoming his strength in its own right. And I think all of us expect to translate this occasion into a real opportunity to pacify, to meet, to have a dialogue and bring a solution of peace to all parties concerned."
Reaction also came from the Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
He said:"We wish him well and we look forward to active engagement on the part of his administration, in co-operation with important members of the international community".
Prime Minister Taro Aso of Japan, who observed that the country and the United States shared universal values and strategic interests, said: "I am convinced that Japan and the United States, both in a position to lead the world, can build a better future by working together to share knowledge, willingness, passion and strategy."
"With this belief, I wish to join hands with President Obama in further strengthening the Japan-US alliance and striving for peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and the world."
King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand also joined in congratulating Obama.
He said: "On the occasion of your assumption of the Office of the President of the United States of America, I am pleased to extend to your Excellency my sincere congratulations and best wishes for your success and happiness as well as for the greater progress and prosperity of the United States of America and her people."
Australia Prime Minister Kevin Rudd stated: "I look forward very much to working with President Obama, the next president of the United States. Because we have a huge challenge ahead and it begins by working together on the global financial crisis."
President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso said: "We are living through challenging times. And the challenges we face have no respect for national frontiers. What we need is new global governance and a new basis for prosperity. I sincerely believe that Europe and the United States must work together and with our partners around the world to devise and implement this new agenda for globalization."
Also throughout Southeast Asia, observers are busy trying to guess what Barack Obama's remarkable ascent to the US presidency will mean for the region's relations with the world's most powerful nation.
In Indonesia, where Obama spent four years as a boy, the mood is celebratory. Children from his former school marked his swearing-in by singing in downtown Jakarta, while former classmates of the president gathered to watch his inaugural address. Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, married Lol Soetoro in Indonesia, where she and her son lived from 1967-72.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono congratulated Obama when he won the election in November, and expressed his hope that the new president's leadership would help steer the world through the current global economic crisis.
However, other countries in the region are less certain about Obama's likely impact on the struggling economy, which is the main focus of relations between the US and Southeast Asia.
An editorial in the Bangkok Post, Thailand's leading English-language daily, was downbeat about the prospects for change, citing critics who warned that "the deepening economic woes and domestic dynamics within Thailand and the US will keep the two allies apart and maintain the status quo on pending free trade negotiations."
Indeed, many fear that the Obama administration will merely follow in the footsteps of its predecessors, who showed little interest in supporting the region's aspirations. For nearly two decades, the US has been unhappy with the notion of the region coming together, particularly when it relied on the anti-West rhetoric of leaders like Malaysia's former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to cement unity among the disparate members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
"Asia, particularly Southeast Asia, will also be watching to see if Obama will pay closer attention to them than Bush did in all his eight years in the White House," Hardev Kaur, an editor for Malaysia's leading newspaper, the New Straits Times.
One of the more difficult issues facing US relations with the region will be Burma. Although it remains to be seen whether the Obama administration will be able to make a breakthrough on Burma, the US ambassador to the UN-designate, Susan Rice, said last week that she favored "multilateral sanctions" with the support of regional powers as a measure to put pressure on the Burmese junta to release political prisoners and restore democracy in the country.
"This is America happening," said Evadey Minott of Brooklyn, New York. "It was prophesied by the Rev. Martin Luther King that we would have a day when everyone would come together. This is that day. I am excited. I am joyful. It brings tears to my eyes."
L.J. Caldwell of Somerset, New Jersey, said Obama's inauguration capped five decades of struggle for African-Americans.
"When you think back, Malcolm X fought. Then we come a little further, Rosa Parks sat. Then come up a little further and Martin Luther King Jr. spoke. Then today, President Obama ran and we won."
Kim Akins, 43, of Chicago, Illinois, who lives just blocks from Obama's home, made the trek to Washington with her eight-year-old daughter, Chloe. "I was going to take my daughter here if it was the last thing I did," she said. "It's breathtaking. ... It's overwhelming."
Vanessa Reed, of Centerville, Virginia, who brought her two young daughters to the inauguration, reflected on Obama's speech as she sat with her daughters across from the presidential reviewing stand at the end of the parade route.
"It was beautiful. It spoke to the issues of the moment," said Reed, who worked for the Obama campaign. "I am proud this country saw what we saw in him."
Not as impressed, her youngest daughter, Brooke.
"It was so boring," the four-year-old said.
Patrick Bragg, 44, of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, contemplated the day as he tried to stay warm standing over steam vent. "I've been sitting here thinking - it's really beautiful," said Bragg, who said he rode a bike 18 miles from Bethesda, Maryland, to attend Tuesday's ceremonies. "This is what I would consider the true representation of all of America. Obama gives everyone space at the table."
Some of those attending the inauguration recalled how they were part of the effort that culminated in the historic day.
"You remember why you are doing it all, why you were working so hard on the campaign making phone calls, knocking on doors and getting slammed in the face sometimes," said iReport contributor Vanessa Palmer of the University of South Florida in Tampa.
Howard University student Shakuwra Garrett, 18, said she felt like "a part of history."
"I can carry this with me the rest of my life," Garrett said. "It's an accomplishment for all of us."
