What the world thought about Obama-Romney foreign policy debate

October 24, 2012 | World News | Written by

Washington, Oct. 24: The third and final presidential debate on foreign policy between President Barack Obama and his Republican rival Mitt Romney was geared to sway US voters, but at points on the globe that the candidates argued over-from Libya to Pakistan to China – netizens, analysts and activists tuned in and weighed in.

On China, after weeks of tough talk about the country, the candidates made little mention of the growing superpower.

Netizens in China did not seem to take sides, but instead used the debate to banter about the relationship with the United States.

“Whoever the winner, they are still all scoundrels and will not benefit China in any way,” a tweet by @SiShiSiNianDeSi read on China’s Weibo social network.

“China only factors into a small part of the debate. From these bits and pieces, any conclusions you draw is like that of a blind man feeling out an elephant,” said another post by @YouYiSuiYi.

According to CNN, China’s state news agency used the occasion to admonish whomever may become president to ‘tone down his get-tough-on-China rhetoric made along the campaign trail’ and deal realistically with “China’s inevitable rise.”

In Pakistan, Romney’s comments on the country’s nuclear weapons program raised some ire.

“Pakistan and the U.S. have an old friendship, and it’s disappointing to hear that Mitt Romney brought this relationship down to one that is purely based on Pakistan being a country with 100 nuclear warheads and counting,” Naveed Chaudhry, an aide to President Asif Ali Zardari, said.

Chaudhry said he wished that the United States would recognize what Pakistan has done for the war on terror, the report said.

Tweets out of Kabul, Afghanistan, indicated that viewers there felt left out of the debate.

“So who won the debate today? I know who lost. Afghans. Little mention of war, except for w/drawal. Differences not so different from e/o,” tweeted someone who went by the name Subel.

Another tweeter, Musa Mahmodi, wrote: “Watched the US presidential debate, nothing new on Afghanistan, they both do not seem understand this country.” (ANI)