Biden sounds alarm at virtual summit about global democracy
Source: AP
By AAMER MADHANI and LISA MASCARO
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday opened the first White House Summit for Democracy by sounding an alarm about a global slide for democratic institutions and called for world leaders to “lock arms” and demonstrate democracies can deliver.
Biden called it a critical moment for fellow leaders to redouble efforts on bolstering democracies. In making the case for action, he noted his own battle to win passage of voting rights legislation at home and alluded to the United States’ own challenges to its democratic institutions and traditions.
“This is an urgent matter,” Biden said in remarks to open the two-day virtual summit. “The data we’re seeing is largely pointing in the wrong direction.”
The video gathering, something that Biden had called a priority for the first-year of his presidency, comes as he’s repeatedly made a case that the U.S. and like-minded allies need to show the world that democracies are a far better vehicle for societies than autocracies.
FILE - President Joe Biden speaks as he meets virtually with Chinese President Xi Jinping from the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Nov. 15, 2021. Biden is ready to urge participants at the first-ever White House Summit for Democracy to reverse an ongoing “recession” of democracy that is playing out a time of rising authoritarianism around the globe and extraordinary strains on foundational institutions in the U.S. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/white-house-summit-for-democracy-biden-us-1c74e38acbd8ab68ed97aa3354af7b1d
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