World reaction to Barack Obama's clinching of the nomination

Kirsty Wigglesworth/Associated Press

I don't usually link to articles on general politics since that info is usually pretty easy to find but this article has a good summary of what newspapers in other countries have been saying about Barack Obama having sewn up the nomination as of yesterday, which saves me a lot of effort. Here's the source, and here are what a few newspapers in other countries have been saying:

Pakistan:

Wamiq Zuberi, the editor of The Business Recorder, the biggest business-oriented newspaper, said he believed Pakistanis were pleased. “Everyone is in fact impressed with the historical moment, that it is the first time an African-American has won the nomination of a party.”

There was a prevailing sentiment, he said, that Mr. Obama would better serve Pakistan’s interests. “If Obama would become president there would be a push for democracy in Pakistan.”

A former senior Pakistani diplomat, who was briefly ambassador to the United States, Tariq Fatemi, said that Mr. Obama’s “idealism” struck a chord with Pakistanis.

“Barack Obama would do very well in improving the image of the United States. He would position the United States more as a force for moral values rather than for brute force,” he said.

Germany:

The enthusiasm was also clear among conservative politicians, such as Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, the foreign policy spokesman for the Christian Social Union, the sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats.

If Mr. Obama becomes president, “a transatlantic honeymoon will take place which will reach its climax at the next NATO summit which will be held both in Germany and France. We will reach a new peak of transatlantic romanticism,” he said.

“The dreams of Germans are connected with a renaissance of multilateralism, to which Obama is committed.”

Greece:

Nikos Karahalios, a top strategist of the ruling New Democracy Party in Greece, said the government in Athens “isn’t playing the Republican or Democratic card game. But Greece, a small country struggling to make its mark in international affairs, has always had a history of siding by the underdog. That’s what Obama is. That’s why he’s appealing to the Greeks.”

Edit June 5th: I'm adding this unrelated picture because I love it. I have no idea when it was taken though; came from here.