President Joe Biden opens his second Democracy Summit with a promise that the United States will spend $690 million to bolster democracy programs around the world.
The Biden administration wants to use the two-day summit that begins Wednesday to focus on making “technology work for, not against, democracy,” according to a senior administration official. He has invited some 120 world leaders to participate.
Biden often talks about how the United States and its like-minded allies are at a critical moment when democracies must show they can outperform autocracies. The summits, something Biden promised as the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, have become an important piece of his administration’s effort to try to build deeper alliances and push autocratically-leaning nations toward at least modest reforms.
“Strengthening transparent and accountable governance based on the consent of the governed is a fundamental imperative of our time,” Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said in a joint statement at the opening of the summit.
The new funding will focus on programs that support free and independent media, fight corruption, strengthen human rights, advance democracy-enhancing technology, and support free and fair elections.
The official, who anticipated the summit on condition of anonymity, said the administration has also reached an agreement with 10 other nations on guiding principles for how governments should use surveillance technology.
The surveillance technology deal comes after Biden signed an executive order earlier this week restricting the US government’s use of commercial spyware tools that have been used to monitor human rights activists, journalists and dissidents around the world.
The world has had a tumultuous 15 months since Biden’s first Democratic summit in December 2021. Countries emerged from the coronavirus pandemic and Russia launched its war in Ukraine, the largest-scale war in Europe since World War II. Biden has also tangled with Beijing, repeatedly speaking out about China’s military and economic influence in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the Russian invasion was a shocking moment for the world’s democracies.
Biden meets with Alberto Fernández
After his appearance in the plenary session of the summit, Biden will receive President Alberto Fernández of Argentina for talks in the Oval Office.
Fernández, who is also participating in the summit, is seeking Biden’s endorsement as his country tries to renegotiate the country’s $44 billion loan program with the International Monetary Fund.
Argentina has asked the IMF to review its requirements for the publication of the latest installment of the agreement, arguing that it has been negatively affected by a drought and higher energy prices caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine.
[Con información de The Associated Press]
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