By Tony Czuczka Nov 5, 2008, 15:34 GMT
Vienna - Eastern European leaders lapped up Barack Obama's pledge of a 'new dawn' of US leadership and heaped praise on the president-elect, although some questioned his toughness toward Russia.
From the Baltics to Bulgaria, the ex-communist area that provided some of President George W Bush's most loyal European allies looked for even closer ties under Obama - minus the us-against-them tension of the last eight years.
'Barack Obama now faces immense tasks, and I place hopes on his youthful energy,' Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said Wednesday.
In Poland, which like the Czech Republic has bonds with the United States reaching back decades, Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said he was happy that Americans felt good about themselves again.
'It's like a fairy tale,' he said of Obama's rise to the presidency. 'That opens a new chapter in their history, and something that makes them feel they can again feel proud as Americans.'
Expectations immediately ran high. Leaders of the Baltic nations made plain that they expect Obama to stand up to Russia. Albania and Croatia, two Balkan nations headed into the NATO military alliance, enthused about his potential as a leader.
Kosovo, its independence from Serbia assured by US backing, gave a hearty thumbs-up. President Fatmir Sejdiu called Obama the 'most important man in the world' and said he was counting on US support for the impoverished, ethnically fragile new nation.
Leaders in south-eastern NATO members Bulgaria and Romania said they want to bolster the strategic partnership with Washington. Both countries have been key US military partners since the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Even Serbian politicians, yearning to end isolation brought on by Serbia's role in the 1990s Balkan wars, said they hope that ties with the US will improve once Obama takes office on January 20.
Governments across the region seemed to hope for a new style of US leadership by a president who is not despised by a large chunk of local voters.
Central and Eastern Europeans largely favoured Obama, a Democrat, in Tuesday's election over his more conservative, older rival John McCain, a Republican.
A key issue for Obama in Poland and Czech Republic is the missile defence system that both governments agreed this year to let the Pentagon install. It would set create the first US military bases in the two former Soviet-bloc nations.
Obama has said he supports the missile shield as long as he's convinced it works. Parliaments on both countries have yet to approve the basing deals.
Slawomir Nowak, a top aide to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, said he doesn't expect an Obama administration to make 'fundamental changes' to the agreement.
'The agreements have been signed, so it only remains to realize those agreements,' Nowak told Poland's national news agency. 'But of course president Obama will have the deciding voice.'
In Prague, Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek - a Bush ally who staunchly supports US missile defence - insisted that Obama's victory 'does not change relations' between the two nations.
While the US says the shield will defend against a growing ballistic missile threat from Iran, Moscow has angrily opposed the system.
Russia's war with Georgia this summer further stirred fear of Moscow in its former satellites. In that context, a conservative Polish opposition leader wondered whether Obama is tough enough.
McCain is 'exceptionally hard' in relations with Moscow, but nobody says that about Obama, said Law and Justice party head Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the twin brother of Poland's president.
Andris, a commuter on his way to work in the Latvian capital Riga, had a different worry: the slump in the once-roaring Baltic economies.
'I don't care about America - we have our own problems right here. I am more worried about whether I will still have a job next year,' he told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
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