US President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday that the second edition of the Democracy Summit, an international meeting initiated by his administration, will be held on 29 and 30 March 2023.
Biden will chair the discussions with the leaders of Costa Rica, the Netherlands, South Korea and Zambia which, the White House said, illustrates the universal aspiration for accountable, transparent and rights-based government.
The meeting will show how democracies benefit their citizens and are best equipped to address the world’s most pressing challenges, the five co-organising countries said in a joint statement, echoing a favourite line of the US president.
The first edition of the democracy summit was held virtually in December 2021 and attracted sharp criticism from China and Russia, which were not among the hundred or so countries invited. Beijing was particularly indignant about Taiwan’s invitation to the meeting.
The White House asserts that since the first edition, the governments concerned have taken “important decisions” to build more resilient democracies, fight corruption and defend human rights. The participants in the first summit have also “worked together to resist authoritarian acts of aggression, including Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war against Ukraine”, according to the US executive.
Joe Biden has repeatedly said that the world is at a “turning point”, with a temptation to authoritarianism threatening democracies, some of which are in bad shape.
