Preserving democracy was the Democratic Party’s electoral theme in last November’s elections, in the face of the risk posed by Trump’s denialist candidates, who still insist they stole the elections. In front of the world and his own country, the challenge is “to show that democracy works.”
That is the objective, in the words of US President Joe Biden, of the three-day summit that is being held virtually and in person simultaneously in the United States, Costa Rica, the Netherlands, Korea and Zambia. Hundreds of round tables associated with the meeting and endless speeches by international leaders, mostly recorded on video, will give content to the second edition of the international event organized by the head of the White House.
In the United States it passes without pain or glory. Critics of it consider it bland and inconsistent. The recorded speeches of the more than 100 invited leaders were advertorials that often bordered on reality. The Philippines, for example, is “a stable beacon of democracy,” according to its president, Bongbong Marcos, and Pakistan, a model of equality, because last year it placed the first female judge on the Supreme Court. This last Islamic country had the delicacy to withdraw, given the clamor that its invitation provoked – its former prime minister Imran Khan is involved in more than 127 court cases, when the fight against corruption is considered at this summit one of the pillars to strengthen democracy.
Many believe that the country was only trying to preserve its close relations with China, which of course is not invited. The giant has invested a whopping $75 billion to build infrastructure in Pakistan, from roads to power plants. The United States tries to counter Asian influence in the world with its support for strengthening democracy, which in numbers pales with Chinese power, the same thing it seeks with the visit of Vice President Kamala Harris to Africa this week.
Biden’s proposal was this Wednesday for 690 million dollars, in addition to the 400 announced at the first summit of 2021, and which will be dedicated to “fighting corruption, promoting democratic reforms, supporting independent media, advancing the democratic technology and defend free elections” in the 120 invited countries.
Turkey and Hungary have lost the invitation, although Israel’s participation has not been endangered, despite the fact that Biden himself said the day before that he is very concerned about the path he is taking. The most critical see hypocrisy in the democratic impulse that Washington wants to give by defending democracy and human rights at this summit, but ignoring them in its relations with Saudi Arabia, for example. And it is that the American model ‘the real politik’ may be incompatible with the president’s public efforts to repair the global image left behind by Trump and form a great alliance of presumed democracies against Russia and China, as the president observed on his Twitter account. of the Council on Foreign Relations, Richard Haass.
“The summit for democracy is a bad idea that will not work. Aside from the awkwardness of the question of who gets invited, American democracy is hardly a model for others,” he said. “And on top of that we need non-democracies to help us in the world.”
#Biden #defends #democracy #works #criticism #global #summit