A number of countries, including Russia and China, are holding off congratulating Joe Biden on his 2020 presidential victory because President Trump has not conceded and continues to pursue legal challenges surrounding the vote.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will remain silent about the results, the Kremlin said on Monday.
“We think it appropriate to wait for the official vote count,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Peskov said there are differences between 2020 and 2016, when Putin congratulated Trump on his victory over Hillary Clinton.
“You can see that there are certain legal procedures that have been announced by the current president. That is why the situations are different and we, therefore, think it appropriate to wait for an official announcement,” he said.
Beijing is also waiting until the legal issues are resolved.
“We noticed that Mr. Biden has declared election victory,” China’s foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Monday. “We understand that the U.S. presidential election result will be determined following U.S. law and procedures.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulated Trump the day after the election in 2016.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has a working relationship with Trump despite tensions over immigration policy, praised the president at a news conference Saturday.
“President Trump has been very respectful of us, and we have reached very good agreements, and we thank him because he has not interfered and has respected us,” he said.
“We don’t want to be imprudent nor act hastily,” he added.
Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, known as the “Trump of the Tropics,” and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has also not congratulated Biden.
Many other nations — including Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Israel and Australia — have offered congratulations.
Biden delivered his victory speech Saturday night in Wilmington, Del., hours after Pennsylvania’s results pushed him past the 270 Electoral College votes he needed to claim the White House.
But Trump is suing in the Keystone State and several others over the tally of mail-in ballots that he claims indicate fraud.
