President Joe Biden on Friday wrapped up his two-day democracy summit, an event that was more about starting a global conversation about how best to halt backsliding than producing immediate results or expanding democracy’s reach.
Biden and fellow leaders announced initiatives to stem autocracies from misusing big tech to stifle dissent, enhance election integrity, bolster independent media and other modest efforts that the president said would "seed fertile ground for democracies to bloom around the world.”
But the U.S. president also acknowledged the path ahead was difficult for democracies amid a rise of authoritarianism around the globe.
“We know how hard the work is that’s going to be ahead of us. but we also know that we are up to the challenge,” Biden said in remarks to close the virtual meeting.
All told, Biden pledged the U.S. would spend up to $424 million in the next year around the world to support independent media, anti-corruption work and more.
The administration sought to frame the virtual summit — a gathering Biden had made a priority during his first year in office — as a launching point for the more than 100 nations invited to collaborate at a difficult moment for democracies. Biden said he wants to reconvene a follow-up gathering in person next year.
Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the summit was a good “starting point" for a “year of action.”
"I hope the 110 leaders will rally around some basic principles for democratic...
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