Former President Donald Trump has often told audiences the first things he would do as president is “close” the southern border and give orders to “drill, drill, drill” to increase domestic oil production.

Vice President Kamala Harris says “it will be a day one priority to bring down prices.”

But the odds are that the more immediate problems the next president will face will not be domestic but international, given the continuation of the bloody, three-year-war in Ukraine and the complex, unstable situation in the Middle East.

Last week’s ABC News debate only discussed those issues after focusing on domestic matters for the first two-thirds of the 100-minute encounter. Still, it provided the campaign’s first sustained discussion of foreign policy issues though neither candidate broke new ground in their comments.

And though neither provided details on how they would approach these issues, especially the Middle East, their comments gave a sense of the substantial differences between their approaches, especially on Ukraine.

Harris made it clear she will continue President Joe Biden’s policy of mobilizing allied support in Europe to assist the embattled former Soviet republic’s efforts to resist Russian aggression and maintain its independence.

“Through the work that I and others did we brought 50 countries together to support Ukraine in its righteous defense,” she said, citing her several meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“And because of our support, because of the air defense, the ammunition, the artillery, the Javelins, the Abrams tanks that we have provided, Ukraine stands as an independent and free country,” she added.

Trump, on the other hand, twice refused to say in response to direct questions from ABC News anchor David Muir if he wants Ukraine to win the war — or to specify anything he would do to assist it.

“I want the war to stop,” he said. “I want to save lives that are being uselessly — people being killed by the millions.”

He promised, as he has repeatedly, that “I’ll get the war with Ukraine and Russia ended,” adding, “If I’m president-elect, I’ll get it done before even becoming president.” He said, “I know Zelenskyy very well and I know [Russian President Vladimir] Putin very well. I have a good relationship.” (As president, Trump pressured Zelenskyy to reopen an investigation of the Biden family, and he called Putin’s invasion of Ukraine “genius” and “savvy.”)

“I believe the reason that Donald Trump says that this war would be over within 24 hours is because he would just give it up,” Harris responded. “Putin would be sitting in Kyiv with his eyes on the rest of Europe. Starting with Poland.”

And she noted the issue’s potential domestic political implications by pointedly asking Trump: “Why don’t you tell the 800,000 Polish Americans right here in Pennsylvania how quickly you would give up for the sake of favor and what you think is a friendship with what is known to be a dictator who would eat you for lunch?”

“Putin would be sitting in Moscow, and he wouldn’t have lost 300,000 men and women,” Trump countered. “He would have been sitting in Moscow much happier than he is right now.”

He inaccurately said a pre-war meeting between Harris and Zelenskyy was a negotiating session to avoid war, rather than an effort to warn him of the impending invasion. “They sent her in to negotiate with Zelenskyy and Putin. And the war started three days later,” he said.

She accused Trump of lying, correctly declaring, “The American people have a right to rely on a president who understands the significance of America’s role and responsibility in terms of ensuring that there is stability and ensuring we stand up for our principles and not sell them for the benefit of personal flattery.”

Their discussion of the Middle East produced less clarity. Harris sought to avoid specifics, and Trump resorted to his typical invective.

Asked how she would deal with the stalled Israeli-Hamas talks seeking a cease-fire in Gaza and the return of the remaining Israeli hostages, Harris echoed Biden’s policies, reiterating Israel’s right to defend itself and adding that “far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.

“We need a cease-fire deal, and we need the hostages out,” she said, reiterating longstanding U.S. policy for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Asked how he would negotiate with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and achieve a cease-fire, Trump replied, “If I were president, it would never have started” and falsely accused Harris of hating Israel.

“If she’s president, I believe that Israel will not exist within two years from now,” he said, adding that “in her own way, she hates the Arab population.”

“That’s absolutely not true,” Harris said. “I have my entire career and life supported Israel and the Israeli people. He knows that. He’s trying to again divide and distract from the reality, which is it is very well known that Donald Trump is weak and wrong on national security and foreign policy.”

Left unspoken was that Netanyahu, who has a close personal relationship with Trump, has repeatedly resisted Biden’s entreaties for an agreement with Hamas, prompting some belief he is stalling until he sees if Trump wins the election.

Netanyahu certainly got no indication Harris would be any less insistent than Biden nor that Trump would pressure him.

As with Ukraine, their responses indicated there would be continuity under a President Harris and uncertainty under a President Trump.

Carl P. Leubsdorf is a former Washington bureau chief of The Dallas Morning News.