Biden leads global summit to address “alarming challenges to democracy”

President Joe Biden kicked off the two-day White House Summit for Democracy with opening remarks Thursday. In a fact sheet, the White House described the summit as a “forum for leaders from around the world to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing democracies in the 21st century.”

“In the face of sustained and alarming challenges to democracy, universal human rights and all around the world democracy needs champions,” Biden said in his opening remarks. “Renewing our democracy and strengthening our democratic institutions requires constant effort.”

Biden described the democracy summit as a “kickoff of a year in action” to “make concrete commitments of how, how to strengthen our own democracies and push back on authoritarianism, fight corruption.”

His opening remarks fall in line with the establishment of the Presidential Initiative for Democratic Renewal. According to the White House, the initiative aims to:

• Support free and independent media
• Fight corruption
• Bolster democratic reformers
• Advance technology for democracy
• Defend free and fair elections and political processes

“American democracy is an ongoing struggle to live up to our highest ideals and to heal our divisions and recommit ourselves to the founding idea of our nation captured in our Declaration of Independence,” Biden said.

Biden has already received backlash for his democracy summit, mostly centered around who was invited and who was not. Two big absences from the summit are China and Russia. Before the summit even began, the ambassadors to the U.S. from each country wrote a joint essay in the National Interest policy journal. They described the Biden administration as exhibiting a “Cold-War mentality” that will “stoke up ideological confrontation and a rift in the world.”

China also criticized Biden for inviting Taiwan to the democracy summit. Tensions between the U.S. and China over Taiwan, which China considers its territory, have been ramping up for months. Other notable snubs from the summit include Vietnam, Egypt and NATO member Turkey.