Governments across Asia, Africa and Europe responded to Sunday’s announcement of an Iran-Israel ceasefire with a mixture of public relief, private skepticism and an immediate scramble to position themselves for the political and economic aftermath, as foreign ministries from Tokyo to Lagos to Brussels weighed in within hours of the joint statement issued from Islamabad.

The ceasefire, brokered by Pakistani, Saudi and Egyptian mediators after eleven days of intensive talks, is scheduled to take effect at 00:00 GMT on April 15. It commits Iran and Israel to a phased halt in direct strikes, a freeze on operations against Iranian nuclear and energy infrastructure, a verifiable stand-down by Houthi forces in Yemen, and a prisoner-and-remains exchange. UN observers are to deploy to the Strait of Hormuz within seventy-two hours of the truce taking hold.

In Beijing, Foreign Minister Wang Yi issued a statement at midday Sunday calling the agreement “a victory for political reason and for the peoples of the region,” and saying China was “ready to play a constructive role” in monitoring and reconstruction. The People’s Daily ran an editorial Sunday evening framing the deal as a vindication of “multipolar diplomacy” and a rebuke to what it called “the failed logic of unilateral pressure.” A senior researcher at the China Institute of International Studies, Li Yuanming, said in a phone interview that Beijing’s restrained public posture in recent weeks had been “designed precisely for this moment — to be available without being entangled.”

Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, in remarks to reporters outside his Tokyo residence, called the ceasefire “deeply welcome news for the Japanese people, for the global economy, and for every family that depends on the safe passage of energy through the Gulf.” Trade Minister Yoko Kamikawa announced that Japan would suspend further releases from its strategic petroleum reserve, which Tokyo had begun tapping in early April in coordination with Seoul, and said an interagency review would examine when to begin replenishment. The Nikkei 225 futures market, trading in Singapore, opened up 1.8 percent on Sunday afternoon.

In Seoul, the foreign ministry said President Lee Jae-myung had spoken by phone with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to convey “the Republic of Korea’s profound appreciation” for the mediators’ work. South Korean shipping firms HMM and Pan Ocean said they would not immediately resume Red Sea transits but would “evaluate conditions on a rolling basis” once the truce took effect.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs welcomed the announcement and noted that New Delhi had “consistently advocated dialogue and de-escalation.” Energy analysts said India, the world’s third-largest oil importer, stood to benefit substantially if the ceasefire held. “The arithmetic on India’s current-account deficit changes meaningfully at $95 Brent versus $120,” said Anjali Raghavan, a Mumbai-based commodities strategist at Kotak Institutional Equities.

European reactions were swift and uniformly supportive in tone, if more guarded in substance. The European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs, Kaja Kallas, said in a statement issued from Brussels that the bloc “warmly welcomes the framework agreed in Islamabad” and stood ready to contribute to verification, refugee return and reconstruction. The German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said in a televised statement from Berlin that “the test of any ceasefire is whether it holds in the first seventy-two hours and the first seven days,” and announced that Germany would send a team of arms-control experts to support UN monitoring at the Strait of Hormuz.

In Paris, President Emmanuel Macron convened a hastily arranged cabinet meeting Sunday afternoon and emerged to tell reporters that France would propose a Mediterranean reconstruction conference in Marseille in early May. “Europe was a passenger in this war,” Macron said in remarks at the Élysée Palace. “Europe must not be a passenger in the peace.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose government had borne particular political costs after a drone strike near an Italian military base in northern Iraq last month, said the ceasefire “honored the sacrifices of all who served and suffered.” The British Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, said London would press for a UN Security Council resolution endorsing the framework “within the week.”

Reactions in Africa carried a different inflection, oriented toward the war’s economic and humanitarian costs on the continent. The African Union, in a statement from its Addis Ababa headquarters, welcomed the ceasefire and called for “urgent global attention to the food-security spillovers” caused by elevated energy and grain prices since early March. AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat said African states had “borne disproportionately the costs of a conflict in which they had no part.”

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, speaking at a Lagos news conference, said the truce was “an answer to the prayers of millions” but warned that “the work of repairing what the war has broken in our markets, in our farms, in our budgets — that work begins now, not later.” Kenya’s foreign ministry said Nairobi would convene a meeting of East African finance ministers next week to discuss debt-service relief for countries whose import bills had been driven sharply higher.

South Africa’s foreign ministry, which has been vocal in criticizing Israeli operations throughout the war, issued a measured statement calling the ceasefire “a necessary first step” and urging that the framework be accompanied by “accountability for civilian harm.” Burkina Faso’s transitional government, which had used the war to deflect ECOWAS pressure in recent weeks, made no public comment by Sunday evening.

Across capitals, officials and analysts cautioned that the agreement’s durability would be tested in the days before and immediately after it took effect. “The seventy-two hours between an announcement and a ceasefire are always the most dangerous,” said Hiroko Tanaka, a Tokyo-based defense analyst at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation. “Every side wants to demonstrate it could have kept going. The next forty-eight hours will tell us a great deal.”

Foreign ministries said additional statements, including coordinated positions from the G7 and the Arab League, would follow in the coming days.