Since Democratic US President Joe Biden took office back in January, the issue of democracy has become one of the main concerns of his administration following the Capitol riots. The White House has announced that Biden will be hosting a summit centering on democracy this December.
This week, the White House announced that Biden will be hosting a virtual “Summit for Democracy” that will take place on December 9 and 10. Heads of state, philanthropists, civil society members, and representatives from the private sector are among those who are invited to attend the virtual event. The virtual conference will provide an opportunity for everyone invited to discuss the challenges that are putting democracies at stake, especially to their world leaders, while also encouraging international cooperation.
Defending democracy against authoritarianism, fighting corruption, and promoting respect for human rights are the main themes of the upcoming conference. The Biden administration is also looking to host a second democracy summit that will take place one year after the first in order to show progress to their respective commitments.
As to which countries are invited have yet to be determined. However, some have viewed the upcoming summit as an alternative conference to the G20 forum and perhaps an indirect challenge to China. The G20 conference, which does include China and Saudi Arabia – both authoritarian governments – will be taking place at the end of October in Italy this year.
This is another one of Biden’s efforts of re-engaging the United States with the rest of the world since taking office. This is in contrast to his predecessor Donald Trump, who applied an “America First” approach to foreign policy and led to strained relationships with allies.
In other news, Biden released a statement through the White House, reflecting on the fourth anniversary of the protests in Charlottesville, where neo-Nazis and white supremacists led a rally in the city with tiki torches. Biden said that those protesters “spewed the same antisemitic bile that was heard in Germany in the 1930s and with the same beatings and bigotry we saw in Jim Crow America for nearly a century.”
Biden recalled that the protests in Charlottesville that led to one fatality was what prompted him to make another presidential bid that ultimately succeeded. The US leader also compared the protests that occurred in 2017 to the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
“While it may come with enormous pain and cost, the greatness of America is that at our best, we meet President Lincoln’s appeal to embrace ‘the better angels of our nature,’” said Biden.