WASHINGTON – United States President Joe Biden has sent invitations to around 110 countries including Pakistan for the Summit for Democracy to be held virtually in December.
The US State Department has shared the list of invitees to the summit scheduled for December 9-10. The current mix of invitees includes liberal democracies, weaker democracies, and several states with authoritarian rule.
However, the Biden administration has invited China, its arch-rival, Turkey, and several others countries.
According to the breakdown of the invitations, European Union leads the world where 39 nations have received invitations, followed by 27 invitees from the Western Hemisphere. The Asia Pacific and Sub-Saharan Africa regions received twenty-one and seventeen invitations, respectively.
On the other hand, fewer countries have been invited from the Middle East and North Africa and South and Central Asia. From Central Asia, Pakistan, India, Maldives and Nepal has obtained the invitations to the virtual summit.
On December 9-10, 2021, President Biden will host the virtual summit for leaders from government, civil society, and the private sector. The summit will focus on challenges and opportunities facing democracies and will provide a platform for leaders to announce both individual and collective commitments, reforms, and initiatives to defend democracy and human rights at home and abroad.
For the United States, the summit will offer an opportunity to listen, learn, and engage with a diverse range of actors whose support and commitment is critical for global democratic renewal. It will also showcase one of democracy’s unique strengths: the ability to acknowledge its imperfections and confront them openly and transparently, so that we may, as the United States Constitution puts it, “form a more perfect union.”
Leaders will be encouraged to announce specific actions and commitments to meaningful internal reforms and international initiatives that advance the Summit’s goals.
These pledges will include domestic and international initiatives that counter authoritarianism, combat corruption, and promote respect for human rights.
