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US President Joe Biden hosts the first ever ‘Summit for Democracy’, urging the leaders of 110 countries to reverse the current “recession” of freedoms at a time of growing authoritarianism around the world and to collaborate in the fight against corruption and the promotion of respect for human rights. In the virtual meeting, which will last for two days, the absences of Russia and China, two of the countries with the greatest tensions against the West, stand out.
The two-day conference headed by President Joe Biden has been heralded as an opportunity for leaders and experts from around 110 countries to propose strategies in the frontal fight against corruption, human rights violations and respect for citizen sovereignty.
“Authoritarian governments are actively working to sow division and mistrust in democracies. The crisis we face is real,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on the eve of the summit.
According to officials of the US Administration, a year of actions in that direction is expected once the meeting ends. White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden will ask those attending the summit to dedicate themselves to “reversing the democratic recession and ensuring that democracies pay off for his people.”
Today marks the start of President Biden’s online Democracy Summit, which will pull the world’s democracies into a single conversation, focusing on what we can do to strengthen one another. Here is why this is necessary:
https://t.co/5TH437iMEa– Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum) December 9, 2021
The event takes place in response to the foreign policy announcements that the US president made on February 5, when he promised the leadership of his country to confront what he considers “authoritarian forces”, of which Russia and China stand out.
But precisely the leaders of those countries were not invited and the meeting is overshadowed by criticism from those governments. For example, Beijing has called the meeting a “mockery.”
Some yes, others no: controversy over countries excluded from the ‘Summit for Democracy’
Washington said through the State Department that the meeting welcomes established and emerging democracies in “a moment of democratic reckoning.”
However, a guest list published last month included countries whose leaders are accused by human rights groups and other governments of leading authoritarian tendencies. The list includes the Philippines, Poland and Brazil.
In addition, the United States included Taiwan, fueling the fury of China, which considers the island part of its territory.
“The American side claims that their so-called ‘Democracy Summit’ is to defend democracy, so I can’t help but ask: with medical resources and advanced technology, how could the US allow more than 800,000 of its inhabitants to die from the virus and leave nearly 50 million people still suffering from Covid-19? (…) With such human rights tragedies, how can the United States defend democracy? “, Questioned this week the spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Zhao Lijian.
Hungary, the only uninvited member of the European Union (EU), tried to prevent EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen from speaking on behalf of the bloc at the summit. During the 2020 campaign, Biden referred to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban as a “bully.”
Turkey, a member of NATO, and Egypt, a key US ally in the Middle East, were also left out. The Biden Administration has raised human rights concerns in both nations. However, it included Poland, which has once again faced a wave of criticism in the EU for undermining the independence of its judiciary and the media.
Washington used the run-up to the summit to announce sanctions against officials in Iran, Syria and Uganda, whom it accuses of oppressing their populations, and against people it points out of being related to corruption and linked to criminal gangs in Kosovo. and Central America.
With Reuters, AP and EFE
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