U.S. President Joe Biden invited about 110 countries, including Argentina, to a virtual summit for democracy in December, a meeting to which his main Western allies were summoned. The exclusion of China and the invitation to Taiwan, a territory that Beijing considers its own, generated the indignation of the Asian giant, which expressed its “firm opposition”, according to a spokesman for its Ministry of Foreign Affairs.Taiwan, for its part, thanked Biden for the call that, he said, will allow the island of autonomous government “to share its successful democratic history”.
Joe Biden, President of the United States | Reuters
As far as the region is concerned, the president invited Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay and excluded Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia and the Salvador.De the Middle East, only the State of Israel and the Republic of Iraq were invited to this online meeting that will take place on December 9 and 10. Some traditional Arab allies of the United States, such as Egypt, are not invited. In Europe, Poland will have its representation, despite recurring tensions with Brussels over respect for the rule of law, although Hungary, led by controversial Prime Minister Viktor Orban, is not on the State Department’s list. As for the African continent, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria and Niger are among the guests.
Xi Jiníng, President of the People’s Republic of China | Reuters
It is worth remembering that since his arrival at the White House, Biden’s foreign policy focused on the fight between democracies and “autocracies”, from his perspective embodied by China and Russia. Along these lines, the “Summit for Democracy” is one of his priorities, as well as one of his campaign promises. This summit was organized in view of numerous setbacks suffered by democracy in recent months in countries where the United States had high hopes, organizers say. The United States itself first joined the list of “democracies in retreat,” mainly due to a degradation under former President Donald Trump, according to a report by Stockholm-based International IDEA.
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