Between the war in Ukraine and the rise of China, Joe Biden wants to face authoritarianism. To do this, the American president opens his “Democracy Summit” on Wednesday. This second edition is co-organized by the United States, Costa Rica, the Netherlands, Zambia and South Korea – representing the five continents. Democracies are under pressure, from the United States to Israel, for example, where a justice reform deeply divides the country and prompted massive protests before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finally declared a “pause”.
Among the announcements expected at the summit, which will begin at 6 a.m. and will be largely virtual, President Biden intends to invest $690 million to support “democratic renewal” around the world, a senior US official told reporters under the guise of anonymity. This envelope must be used to promote the holding of fair and free elections, the defense of human rights and freedom of the press, as well as the fight against corruption, he said, specifying that it will be added to the 400 million released at the first summit held under the auspices of President Biden in 2021.
The threats posed by new technologies should also occupy a large part of the debates, specified the American official, citing in particular spyware. The leaders of each of the five host countries will chair a virtual plenary session at the summit on Wednesday, with the US president’s session devoted to the “response of democracies to global challenges” to which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been invited.
121 countries invited
And on Thursday, the second day of the summit, events will take place in the capitals of each of the host countries. No less than 121 countries from around the world have been invited to the summit, eight more than two years ago. The numerous working sessions, mostly virtual, bring together officials and civil society actors to talk about the challenges posed to democracy around the world, including in the technological field, at a time when Westerners accuse the TikTok network in particular. to serve as a tool for Beijing.
If President Biden has kept his campaign promises on this summit and renewed the alliances of the United States after the Trump years, he has disappointed many observers by approaching leaders accused of authoritarian excesses and with disputed records in terms of rights. humans. Joe Biden traveled to Saudi Arabia and Egypt last year to participate in COP27 and rekindled working ties with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But none of these three countries was invited to participate in this high mass. Among the other countries shunned, the Hungary of the nationalist leader Viktor Orban, as well as Singapore and Bangladesh.
The US State Department refused to talk about the criteria that determined whether or not certain countries were invited, while referring to a “representative” socio-economic and regional distribution. “We are not looking to define which countries are or are not democracies,” a spokesperson said. For Freedom House, a US government-backed democracy research group, 2022 has seen a decline in democracy around the world, according to its annual report.