President-elect Joe Biden has promised to host a gathering of the world’s democracies next year, hoping to show that a post-Donald Trump America will be committed to democracy abroad and at home.
Biden’s pledge, though, has left many foreign officials pondering a thorny question: Will their country be invited?
t’s of special concern for nations such as Turkey, Hungary, Poland and the Philippines — all U.S. allies or partners with leaders who have taken notable steps away from democracy. Even a country like India, which boasts of being the world’s most populous democracy, may not make the cut given recent anti-democratic trends there. Then there’s the question of how weighted the event will be toward Western countries. Looming over it all will be the memory of Trump, who has yet to concede the Nov. 3 election and spent four years raising questions about the strength of America’s own democratic system.
Biden aides declined to comment on the record for this report, but they pointed to a spring essay by the president-elect in which he laid out some aspects of his “Summit for Democracy.” Biden wrote that the gathering “will bring together the world’s democracies to strengthen our democratic institutions, honestly confront nations that are backsliding, and forge a common agenda.”
Note EU-Digest - Hopefully the Biden Administration willcall "a spade a spade" when inviting participants to their "democratic Nations" meeting and exclude countries like Saudi-Arabia, Hungary, Poland, Turkey, Egypt and many others who don't make the grade of a Democratic nation. IKf not the meeting will be just a PR excercise.
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Are you on the list? Biden’s democracy summit spurs anxieties — and skepticism - POLITICO
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