The summit gathered 111 leaders from diverse, and, at times, discordant governments, as well as civic society and private sector figures, to take part in a “year of action” to make domestic and global reforms, reports Asian Lite News
President Joe Biden has gathered over 100 world leaders at a summit and made a plea to bolster democracies, calling safeguarding rights and freedoms in the face of rising authoritarianism the “defining challenge” of the current era.
He urged leaders to “lock arms” to strengthen democracies and demonstrate their worth.
The White House billed the two-day virtual event starting on Thursday as an opportunity to reassert democratic values amid a global backslide. The summit gathered 111 leaders from diverse, and, at times, discordant governments, as well as civic society and private sector figures, to take part in a “year of action” to make domestic and global reforms.
The administration has said a second summit in 2022 will serve as a global progress report.
“We stand at an inflection point in our history. The choices we make in my view in this moment, are going to fundamentally determine the direction our world is going to take in the coming decades,” Biden said on Thursday.
“Will we allow the backward slide of rights and democracy to continue unchecked? Or will we together, together have a vision … and courage to once more lead the march of human progress and human freedom forward.”
The summit follows a tumultuous year in US democracy that began with an attempt by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, crescendoing in the deadly storming of the US capitol on January 6 by Trump supporters in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s election.
Biden’s attempt to claim the mantle of leadership in democracy promotion amid a continued backslide in trust in the democratic institutions at home sits awkwardly for some observers.
Kimberly Halkett, Al Jazeera’s White House correspondent, said that – given the authoritarianism of many of the countries participating in the summit and the US’s own problems, such as racial injustice – it would be a challenge to agree on an actionable joint statement from the summit.
“[Biden] believes that the US, while flawed, is still the best model of democracy and hopes to lead by example,” Halkett said.
“This is the challenge for the US president. He is moving forward, he is making the case that this can be worked on collectively, even as he acknowledges rather humbly that the US has its own flaws,” Halkett said.
The gathering comes as several prominent international observers continue to warn that democracies are increasingly threatened around the world.
In its new annual report released on Wednesday, CIVICUS Monitor, a global rights index, said 13 countries saw their civic freedoms downgraded in 2021 from the previous year. Only one, Mongolia, saw civic freedoms improve, according to the report.
Of the 197 countries graded by the group, only 39 were rated as open societies.
Another group, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, said in its annual report that the number of democracies in backslide “has never been as high” as the past decade, with the US for the first time added to the list alongside India and Brazil.
ALSO READ: Biden to announce Russia-NATO meeting to discuss concerns
