Donald J. Trump

President-Elect of the United States of America,

Dear President-Elect Trump,

I write to congratulate you on your election to the office of President of the United States of America.

Statements you made during your campaign about improving relations between the United States and other countries, and about restoring a friendly dialogue with my country, Russia, please us enormously and give us hope for the future. Russia and America are great world powers, and that status brings with it an enormous and broad responsibility.

It is not by chance that, from the very beginning of the United States, Russia has seen it as a powerful and dependable ally. This alliance has always served to improve the economic well-being and strength of our two countries. In fact, prior to the Russian Revolution, Russia was perhaps the only major world power with which the United States never had a serious disagreement. During the American War of Independence, Empress Catherine the Great supported the American colonists in every way she could. She refused to send Russian forces to fight against the American side, and her timely declaration of the League of Armed Neutrality contributed significantly to the colonists winning their independence.

During the American Civil War, at a time when President Lincoln’s administration was at a point of great weakness, Emperor Alexander II, the Tsar-Liberator, sent the Russian fleet to the harbours of New York and San Francisco as a sign of support for the American president and as a signal that European powers should not seek to take advantage of American weakness. My royal ancestors understood the significance of the United States on the world stage, and they foresaw the role it would play in the future; and American presidents have seen Russia as one of the most stable and important guarantors of the international balance of power. In the modern era, the alliance between the Soviet Union and the United States and their allies was of course essential to the defeat of Nazism. In later years, as in our own day and in the foreseeable future, the willingness of the United States and the Russian Federation to work together and cooperate has, and will continue to have, enormous significance for the future of humanity.

My hope is that during your term as president, political tensions between Russia and the United States will diminish, and that relations between our governments in the face of common threats will grow in mutual respect and for the benefit of both our nations.

I and my son and heir, Grand Duke George of Russia, wish you good health, strength and energy, wisdom, patience, resilience, and God’s help in serving the people of the United States and in fulfilling America’s international mission, which is so important not only for citizens of America, but for all the peoples of the world.

H.I.H. the Grand Duchess Maria of Russia

Madrid

November 9, 2016