The latest on world reaction to the US election (all times EST):

11:20 p.m.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has told an aide that "the competition is closer than expected" in the US election.

Aide Tateo Kawamura tells Japan's Kyodo News service that Abe is following the vote count in his office.

The Japanese government has remained neutral in public statements, but analysts on both sides of the Pacific have talked about a possible change in US policy toward Japan and the rest of Asia if Republican candidate Donald Trump should win.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga is reaffirming his government's commitment to the US-Japan security alliance. He tells reporters that whoever is the next president, the Japan-US alliance will remain the cornerstone of Japan-US diplomacy.

11 p.m.

Chinese state media outlets are casting the US election as the embodiment of America's democracy in crisis in contrast to China's perceived stability under authoritarian rule.

The state-run Xinhua News Agency says the campaign has highlighted that, in its words, "the majority of Americans are rebelling against the US's political class and financial elites."

The official Communist Party newspaper People's Daily says in a commentary that the presidential election reveals an "ill democracy."

On Tuesday, the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV ran man-on-the-street interviews with unidentified American voters in which they expressed disgust with the system and dissatisfaction with both candidates.

10:45 p.m.

The Mexican peso has fallen sharply against the US dollar as early returns show a tight race for the White House.

Financial research firm FactSet says the currency is currently trading at 20.45 to the dollar. The Bank of Mexico's interbank rate stood at 18.42 at the end of Tuesday's trading day.

The peso has closely tracked the US presidential race during the campaign, hardening when Clinton's chances are seen as bullish and weakening when Donald Trump is seen as rising.

Financial analyst Gabriela Siller of Banco BASE issued a forecast Tuesday that a Trump victory could cause the peso to fall to 24 to the dollar next year and lead to a 3 percent economic contraction in Mexico.

Trump has threatened to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and vows to build a wall along the United States' southern border and force Mexico to pay for it.

10:30 p.m.

Caroline Kennedy, the US ambassador to Japan, says this could be a historic US election comparable to her father John F. Kennedy breaking a religious barrier in 1960 as the first Catholic president and Barack Obama become the first African American one in 2008.

That will be true if Hillary Clinton wins the race and becomes the first female US president. In Kennedy's words, "This year is another chance to break a barrier with a woman on the top of a major party ticket for the first time."

Kennedy supported Obama in 2008 and, while she didn't support Clinton by name, she made clear that the Democratic candidate is her preference. She added: "I think we're going to get the president we deserve," she concluded.

10:10 p.m.

US Ambassador to China Max Baucus says "the world's most important relationship" between Beijing and Washington will remain stable regardless of the outcome of the US presidential election.

Asked by a Chinese reporter about Trump's proposal for a 45 percent tariff on Chinese goods imported in the US, Baucus says that "people say a lot of things in the heat of a campaign that are not quite as feasible as they think when they're elected."

Trump has also pledged to withdraw US support for the Paris climate change agreement that was reached largely through hard negotiating with China.

Baucus says he doesn't believe the two countries would stop collaborating on issues already agreed to, including climate change, containing North Korea's nuclear ambitions and reaching a political settlement in Afghanistan.

In his words, "The issues are the same, the good faith is the same."

10 p.m.

Chinese state media and government-backed commentators are continuing to signal Beijing's preference for a Donald Trump win in the US presidential election.

Like Russia, China is seen as favoring Trump because he appears less willing to confront China's newly robust foreign policy, particularly in the South China Sea. Clinton, by contrast, is disliked in Beijing for having steered the US "pivot" to Asia aimed at strengthening US engagement with the region, particularly in the military sphere.

Writing in the Communist Party newspaper Global Times, scholar Mei Xinyu says: "From a comprehensive view, it would make it easier for China to cope if Trump is elected. This is because under the policy line advocated by Obama and Clinton, the political and military frictions between China and the US will be more frequent."

9:45 p.m.

Japanese are tweeting about their interest in the US election, and retweeting developments, though not everyone is happy. One Twitter user complains: "The US presidential election is the only thing I can see on any channel!"

Several major television stations have suspended their regular morning programming to cover the vote, with a running tally of results and explanations of the US electoral vote system.

A dramatic sinkhole in Fukuoka city eclipsed the US election on the front pages of Japan's major newspapers, but online editions and media such as Yahoo! Japan have launched special election pages.

The Nikkei economic newspaper calls it an "unprecedentedly heated US presidential election."

8:20 p.m.

New Jersey-born Heather Bennett, 40, and sons Stirling, 11 months, and Macquarie, 30 months, were among dozens of Americans and Australians who gathered at P.J. O'Reilly's Irish Pub in Canberra to watch the count on TV.

Married to an Australian and living in Canberra, Australia's capital, Bennett said watching the US election from afar gave her a different view of American politics.

"It's interesting because you get a different perspective. I think that's pretty cool," she said. "Usually in the US you feel like you're in your own little bubble. You don't get to see the reactions of other people around the world in the US"

5:15 p.m.

More than 100 people have gathered at the US Ambassador to Senegal's residence in Dakar to discuss the American presidential election.

University students and professionals posed next to life-size cutouts of the two main candidates and mingled, holding glasses of ginger, bissap and baobab juice in the residence's gardens.

In a mock vote cast throughout the evening, the overwhelming majority voted for Hillary Clinton over Republican candidate Donald Trump.

Matel Bocoum, a 37-year-old journalist for Senegal's Le Soleil Business, said she'd vote for Clinton.

"Never did we think a black man would become the head of the United States, and now, we have the same hopes for a woman. And if a woman becomes the head of the United States, it's a beautiful lesson for women all over," she said.

5:05 p.m.

A senior Australian government minister says he thinks Hillary Clinton will win the election easily, which would be the best outcome for Australia.

Minister for Defense Industry Christopher Pyne said the Democratic candidate was better on free trade and US engagement in the Asian-Pacific region than Donald Trump.

"I think Hillary will win and win easily and I think that would be the best outcome for Australia because she does support free trade, she does support the United States being deeply engaged in our Asian region which is critical to us," Pyne told Ten Network television late Tuesday.

Australian government leaders generally avoid commenting on US politics, saying they are prepared to work with whoever occupies the White House

4:25 p.m.

Some Mexicans are already preparing to celebrate a possible loss by Donald Trump in the US presidential election.

A Facebook invite is asking people to gather at Mexico City's iconic Angel of Independence statue Tuesday night for a celebration if the Republican candidate loses. At least 5,000 people have already RSVPed that they would come.

Trump is unpopular in Mexico for suggesting that many Mexican immigrants are criminals or rapists, and for promising to build a border wall between the countries.

3 p.m.

Few countries have more riding on the US election than Cuba. Republican candidate Donald Trump has promised to reverse Barack Obama's normalization of relations with the communist-run island. Clinton has pledged to continue the process. Normalization with the US is almost universally popular in Cuba, where people said they were rooting for Clinton and a future of better relations.

"We have to respect whatever decision Trump would take but we don't want him to be president," Havana resident Lina Osorio said. "We need relations between the two countries."

Fellow Havana resident Rangel Galindo said simply: "I want it to be her, not him."

1:30 p.m.

Argentine Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra says a win by Republican Donald Trump in the US election would stall recent moves to improve relations between the countries.

Malcorra told Argentine television channel Todo Noticias that the conservative government of President Maurico Macri had opened a new phase of cooperation and trade with Washington after years of strained relations under former President Cristina Fernandez.

But she said Monday night that there might be a "big stop" in this process if Trump wins, and "depending on the results, there might be big changes" in US-Argentine relations.

The Argentine foreign minister said the "more closed, isolationist and xenophobic" model represented by the Republican candidate would have a major impact on the world and relations with Latin America.

12:40 p.m.

Germany's foreign minister says the bitter US election campaign will leave a "difficult legacy" for the next president because it has deepened the country's divisions.

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier says both Germans and many Americans "are glad that this special election campaign is coming to an end."

He says the campaign "has left a more or less divided country" and it will be difficult for the incoming president to bridge the differences.

Steinmeier has been sharply critical of Republican contender Donald Trump. He brushed aside suggestions that relations between Europe and the US would also become more complicated under Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton — saying that he knows Clinton and doesn't fear that.

He spoke in Berlin on Tuesday.

12:30 p.m.

Kenyans in President Barack Obama's ancestral hometown have held their own version of the US presidential election, leaning heavily toward Obama's own favorite in the race: Hillary Clinton.

Tuesday's mock poll was held in Nyangoma-Kogelo, the birthplace of Obama's father. Kenyan comedian Laurence Oyange was an organizer. He says it's a way Kenyans can connect to America.

Oyange said the poll was boycotted by Malik Obama, the president's half brother who has said he supports Trump.

There were 105 voters and 78 percent of them favored Clinton. Eleven percent went for Donald Trump. Other ballots were spoiled or disqualified.

Oyange says the community also held mock US elections during Obama's elections.

12:15 p.m.

Italian Premier Matteo Renzi is offering an Election Day swansong honor to Barack Obama, saying the first black American president "wrote an indelible page of history" that should inspire generations to come.

Renzi pointed to US job creation, investment in energy and health care as some of Obama's domestic victories. Renzi cited the Cuba detente and the Iran nuclear deal as international achievements for the Obama administration.

Renzi writes in his weekly e-newsletter that "Obama was a point of reference for those who still believe in the American dream, for those who believe in the Democratic Party, for those who believe in politics."

Renzi is the leader of Italy's Democratic Party and has said he hopes Hillary Clinton wins.

Renzi writes that Obama will continue "to be a source of inspiration and encounter for the new generation."

12:05 p.m.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says a victory for Hillary Clinton in the US presidential election would be a step toward gender balance among world leaders.

Merkel says she's awaiting the election result "with suspense," while declining to comment directly on Clinton or rival Donald Trump.

But asked Tuesday about the possibility of a woman winning the White House, she said: "Then we'd come a little bit closer to a balance of women and men in leading positions."

Germany's first female leader was speaking alongside Erna Solberg, Norway's second female prime minister. Solberg said it "may be inspiring for many young women to see politics not just as something that belongs to men."

But she added: "There isn't some kind of global girlfriends network that wants to rule the world."

12:00 p.m.

Poland's foreign minister says Eastern Europe is closely watching the US elections but will reserve judgment on who would be a better president.

Witold Waszczykowski declined to say whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump would better serve the region's security and political interests.

He says a future US president would be judged after selecting "prominent figures to run foreign policy and the military sector."

Nine senior diplomats and foreign ministers of NATO's eastern flank members met in Bucharest Tuesday to discuss Russia, regional security and the US election.

Waszczykowski says he doesn't think the words and ideas expressed during the campaign are necessarily "a guide for a future president."