Diplomats from several countries complain, says report.
AB Wire
An Indian diplomat is among several other diplomats from countries around the world who have expressed alarm to the United States over about inflammatory and insulting public statements by businessman and Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, according to senior U.S. officials.
Officials from Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia have complained in recent private conversations, mostly about the xenophobic nature of Trump’s statements, said three U.S. officials, who all declined to be identified, reported Reuters.
“As the (Trump) rhetoric has continued, and in some cases amped up, so, too, have concerns by certain leaders around the world,” said one of the officials.
The three officials declined to disclose a full list of countries whose diplomats have complained, but two said they included at least India, South Korea, Japan and Mexico.
U.S. officials said it was highly unusual for foreign diplomats to express concern, even privately, about candidates in the midst of a presidential campaign. U.S. allies in particular usually don’t want to be seen as meddling in domestic politics, mindful that they will have to work with whoever wins, reported Reuters.
Senior leaders in several countries — including Britain, Mexico, France, and Canada — have already made public comments criticizing Trump’s positions. German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel branded him a threat to peace and prosperity in an interview published on Sunday.
A spokesperson for the Mexican government would not confirm any private complaints but noted that its top diplomat, Claudia Ruiz Massieu, said last week that Trump’s policies and comments were “ignorant and racist” and that his plan to build a border wall to stop illegal immigration was “absurd.”
On Dec. 7, Trump’s campaign issued a written statement saying that he was “calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”
Trump subsequently said in television interviews that American Muslims traveling abroad would be allowed to return to the country, as would Muslim members of the U.S. military or Muslim athletes coming to compete in the United States.
“The responses have ranged from amusement to befuddlement to curiosity,” the official said to Reuters. “In some cases, we’ve heard expressions of alarm, but those have been more in response to the anti-immigrant and anti-refugee sentiment as well as the general sense of xenophobia.”
More than a hundred Republican foreign policy veterans pledged this week to oppose Trump, saying in an open letter that his proposals would undermine U.S. security.
Several American foreign policy experts said foreign diplomats have complained to them as well.
“All foreign diplomats I’ve talked to are amazed at the Trump phenomenon and worried about it, especially in the Middle East and Europe,” said Elliott Abrams, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank who handled Middle East affairs at the National Security Council from 2001 to 2009 under then-President George W. Bush.
Read the full story here: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump-foreign-idUSMTZSAPEC37O1O8W3