Washington.- US President Joe Biden will inaugurate his second Summit for Democracy on Wednesday with the promise to invest 690 million dollars to promote democracy around the world.
The US government seeks to use the two-day summit to discuss ways to “use technology for democracy and not against it,” according to an official source. Some 120 world leaders have been invited to the event.
Biden frequently argues that democratic countries are at a historic crossroads, where they must show that they are better than authoritarian systems. The summits, which were one of his campaign promises, have become a key part of his administration’s efforts to forge alliances with democratic countries and to persuade nations with authoritarian leanings to implement at least some reforms. modest.
“Strengthening transparent and accountable governance, based on the consent of the governed, is a fundamental imperative of our era,” Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said in a joint statement ahead of the opening of the summit.
The money pledged to improve democracies will focus on programs to support a free and independent press, fight corruption, improve human rights, advance democracy-enhancing technologies, and hold free and fair elections.
The official source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the US government had also reached an agreement with 10 other nations on how to use surveillance and espionage technologies.
This agreement comes after Biden signed an executive order a few days ago that restricts the use by the government of commercial spyware that in other countries has been used to monitor human rights activists, journalists and dissidents.
A turbulent 15 months have passed since the first Democracy Summit in December 2021. Many countries have emerged from the coronavirus pandemic and Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, the biggest war in Europe since World War II. Biden has also had spats with China and has denounced Beijing’s growing economic and military influence in the Indo-Pacific region and other parts of the world.
