In the joint statement opening the virtual meeting, President Joe Biden and South Korean President Jun Seok-yol emphasized that strengthening transparent, accountable governance with the consent of the governed is a fundamental necessity of today's times. According to the document, since the first meeting in December 2021, the governments participating in the conference have made hundreds of commitments to change their laws and policies in order to achieve this goal.
Democracies have grown stronger since the first democracy summit, held 15 months ago, also thanks to the commitments made at that time, the President of the United States declared on the opening day of the international virtual conference called the Summit for Democracy on Wednesday. Joe Biden explained that world history is at a crossroads, and the decisions made today will influence the direction of world processes for decades.
Joe Biden: the world is at a crossroads
The president confirmed that the United States will support the strengthening of democracy worldwide with $690 million over the next two years under a presidential program. Joe Biden said at the event with the participation of several heads of state and government that in the framework of the Presidential Initiative for Democratic Renewal launched in December 2021 (Presidential Initiative for Democratic Renewal), in cooperation with Congress, 690 million dollars will be added to the 400 million dollars at that time
they provide countries around the world with new resources to strengthen transparent and accountable governance, fight corruption, media freedom, and support technologies that work for democracy.
The president also reported that
a new office will be created as part of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which will deal with democracy and human rights, among other things.
Joe Biden called one of the focuses of action to strengthen democracies that technology be used for democratic governance, not to undermine it. He recalled that for this purpose, he signed a presidential order at the beginning of the week limiting the use of commercially available spy programs for the US government. American taxpayers' money cannot be shared by companies whose products enable the violation of human rights, the president said.
The conference will be attended by 120 world political leaders, co-organized by South Korea, Costa Rica, Zambia and the Netherlands.
Late in the morning local time, President Joe Biden will speak at the summit's virtual panel, which will be attended by Slovak President Zuzana Caputová, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Danish Prime Minister Mette Fredriksen and Moldovan President Maja Sandu, among others.
Early in the morning American time, the German Chancellor, the British Prime Minister, the French President, the Dutch Prime Minister, and the Indian Prime Minister also spoke.
Israel, represented by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was invited to the event. According to the White House, the American-Israeli political tension that has developed in recent days did not affect the invitation. Benjamin Netanyahu and President Joe Biden made sharply opposing statements on Israeli judicial reform on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, the spokesperson of the White House National Security Council answered at a press conference when asked why the United States did not send invitations to two NATO member countries, Turkey and Hungary, by saying that the United States is committed to developing and strengthening relations with Turkey and Hungary.
John Kirby emphasized that they are NATO allies with whom they cooperate on many issues.
He noted that compared to the first conference, more countries were invited to the event this year, which showed political will to strengthen the goals of the summit.
In advance, US government officials stated that the goal of the conference was to ensure that "technology works for democracy and not against it." It has been announced that the United States has tentatively agreed with ten countries on the principles under which governments will use covert surveillance and data-gathering technologies.
MTI / civilek.info
Photo: United States Department
