Joe Biden unites a hundred countries for his summit for democracy

Published on : 12/09/2021 – 07:53

US President Joe Biden brings together a hundred countries on Thursday December 9 and Friday December 10 for a “summit for democracy” which has sparked the ire of China and Russia.

The event, organized virtually in Washington due to the Covid-19 pandemic, is according to the White House revealing of the fight between democracies and, dictatorships and autocratic regimes, at the center of Biden’s foreign policy.

“Do not doubt it, we are at the moment of truth for democracy,” said US Under Secretary of State for Security, Democracy and Human Rights Uzra Zeya.

Democracies around the world “face growing challenges from new threats,” she said. “In virtually every region of the world these countries have experienced democratic setback to varying degrees.”

“Cold War Mindset”

The summit brings together representatives of around 100 governments, NGOs, businesses and charities. But the guest list has caused great tension.

China and Russia, considered by Joe Biden as the champions of the autocratic camp, have castigated their exclusion.

That the United States allows itself to define “which is a ‘democratic country’ and which is not eligible for this status” is part of a “Cold War mentality”, the ambassadors wrote in a joint column at the end of November. Russian Anatoly Antonov and Chinese Qin Gang.

Rejecting the idea of ​​a single model of democracy, the two diplomats praised their respective regimes based on “Chinese realities” or Russian “traditions”.

Taiwan’s invitation also made Beijing jump, which considers the island a Chinese province even if it does not control it.

Another point of friction, Washington announced Monday that it would not send any diplomatic representatives to the Beijing Winter Olympics in February to protest human rights violations in China, including the “genocide” against the Uyghur Muslim minority, denounced by the US government.

Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada joined in this diplomatic boycott, decried by Beijing and Moscow.

In terms of human rights or electoral fraud, the choice of the invited countries also raises questions. Pakistan, the Philippines or even Brazil led by far-right President Jair Bolsonaro were invited, but not Hungary, a member of the European Union, where a nationalist government is in power, nor Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkey. , yet Washington’s ally within NATO.

For the Near East region, only two countries were invited: Israel and Iraq.

American democracy shaken

The summit comes as the United States goes through an unprecedented modern political crisis, with former President Donald Trump and his conservative allies continuing to denounce without evidence electoral fraud that would have caused him to lose the November 2020 election.

The violent attack by supporters of Donald Trump on Congress on January 6 shook American democracy and the country remains shaken by divisions despite the president’s “unifying” posture.

Barely in the polls, Joe Biden must face in a year of legislative elections of mid-term which are traditionally unfavorable to the capacity in place. This election could also, in the event of Republican success, push Donald Trump to seek a new term in 2024.

For Bruce Jentleson, professor of political science at Duke University, this summit “has always been a bad idea”. “We have bigger problems than any other western democracy,” he says. “We attacked Congress, it was an attempted coup d’état. We did not see that happen in Paris, in the (German) Bundestag or at the European Union headquarters in Brussels.”

“If we are to compete, we have to do our best, and it’s really up to us to do it in our country rather than rallying a hundred leaders to say, ‘We love democracy,'” he explains.

With AFP