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Biden will announce $690 million to fight corruption, support
free and fair elections and advance technogies that support
democratic governments at a second White House-led Summit for
Democracy, senior administration officials said on Tuesday. He
announced over $400 million for similar programs in 2021 when he
last held such an event.
Rights advocates say there is little evidence the countries
joining the summit have made progress on improving their
democracies, and that there is no formal mechanism to hold
participants to the modest commitments made at the first
meeting.
The world has seen big changes since then with countries
emerging from the global pandemic and Russia's invasion of
Ukraine.
More recently, a move by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's
coalition government to weaken the power of Israel's judiciary,
Mexico's move to gut its election oversight body; India's
decision to disqualify a top opposition political leader have
all cast a pall over Biden's repeated claims that democracies
have become stronger.
The senior administration officials said Biden will look to make
the case that the events of the last year have put into stark
relief that democratic governments grounded in the rule of law
remain the best way to promote peace and prosperity.
"As President Biden has said, we're currently at an inflection
point when it comes to the future of democracy both within the
United States and globally," one of the officials said.
The summit will be co-hosted by the governments of Costa Rica,
the Netherlands, South Korea and Zambia. The event involves 120
countries including Taiwan, civil society groups and technology
companies
(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Washington; Editing by Michael
Perry)
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