By Alistair Burt

The world this week awaits the verdict of its most important democracy. This US presidential campaign, astonishing in so many ways, reaches polling day on Tuesday with the outcome still uncertain, a contest between the unknown and the unpredictable. It is not an enviable situation either for the US or for the UK, EU, Middle East and others, which will be watching with perhaps greater anxiety than ever before.

It could still be the case that the most consequential decision in the campaign remains that of those who persuaded President Joe Biden to opt for a very early TV debate with Donald Trump. Shrewdly but secretly gambling that exposing the president’s frailty would allow for a replacement candidate, it immediately shifted what had been gathering momentum toward Trump. It refocused the issues of age and capacity squarely on the man who was now the oldest candidate. While that gamble to replace Biden may have worked, it remains to be seen if it has swayed the election itself.

Whatever the real or imagined preferences of foreign countries as to the outcome, the truth is that they will respect the decision of the American people and get to work with the new incumbent in the White House. They will deal with the specific differences in policy about........

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