Corruption and Ukraine focus the previous day of the Summit for Democracy

This Tuesday began a series of events prior to the formal inauguration of the second Summit for Democracy organized by the United States government, which will be co-hosted by several countries, including Costa Rica.

Samantha Power, Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) participated in one of the initial forums where she mentioned the organization’s efforts to strengthen democracy in the region.

Coinciding with the event, USAID formally launched the so-called Integrity for Development Campaign, which seeks to increase the total amount of donor resources for the fight against corruption, especially in environments where the international community is making significant investments. sectoral issues, such as climate finance, and corruption risks are high.

In a similar vein, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced the launch of an initiative by the US and more than 20 countries to create a corporate ownership registry to help them fight corruption more effectively.

Yellen announced the new initiative, which includes measures to implement the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards on transparency and beneficial ownership of companies, as a commitment that requires signatory countries to update legal and regulatory frameworks to facilitate access to information on the ownership of companies.

Russian invasion in Ukraine

Later there was a meeting focused on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Secretary of State Antony Blinken moderated the space and stressed the importance of “a just and lasting peace.”

The head of US diplomacy assured that “Putin’s main objective was to erase Ukraine’s identity as an independent and sovereign nation in order to absorb it into Russia.” He also added that this offensive undermines the rules-based international order that seeks to defend international peace and stability.

On the other hand, Blinken conveyed President Biden’s desire to make the Summit “look towards the future of democracy” at a time when “a turning point” is being experienced.

“All over the world we see autocrats violating human rights, suppressing fundamental freedoms, corrupting and with that corruption consuming the faith of young people in freedom,” Blinken said.

Next days agenda

This Wednesday, it is expected that the 5 countries co-hosting the Democracy Summit (United States, Costa Rica, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea and Zambia) will officially open the Summit.

The plenary sessions will be interspersed with “highlighted interventions” by leading activists and civil society figures.

President Joe Biden is expected to appear; as well as the rest of the co-host leaders.

On Thursday, each of the five Democracy Summit co-host countries will lead an in-person or hybrid regional meeting on a central Summit theme with representatives from government, civil society and the private sector.

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