No Invite For Azerbaijan: U.S. Extends Invitation To 120 Leaders For Next Week's Democracy Summit

Washington D.C./23.03.23/Turan:   The Biden administration has extended invitations to 120 global leaders for next week’s Summit for Democracy, a senior aide to U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

"We have reinvited all of those governments and partners that were invited to the first summit in December of 2021 and also added eight new governments from around the world," Rob Berschinski, special assistant to the president, said in response to TURAN's questions. New countries include Bosnia and Herzegovina, Liechtenstein, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Mauritania, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Honduras.

Berschinski, who is also the senior director for human rights on the National Security Council, was speaking to reporters during a briefing organized by the State Department's Washington Foreign Press Center on the upcoming Summit which, as he put it, aims to strengthen democratic institutions, tackle corruption, and defend human rights.

The U.S. co-hosts the Summit on March 29-30, along with Costa Rica, the Netherlands, South Korea and Zambia. The formal summit runs from next Wednesday to Thursday, and will be preceded by a day of high-level thematic events on Tuesday, March 28th, hosted by members of Biden’s cabinet and other senior U.S. officials.

On Wednesday, Biden, joined by President Chaves of Costa Rica, Prime Minister Rutte of the Netherlands, President Yoon of the Republic of Korea, and President Hichilema of the Republic of Zambia will assemble world leaders in a series of virtual leader-level plenary sessions.

On Thursday, March 30th, each summit - government will host in its capital an in-person regional ministerial-level gathering with representatives from foreign governments and nongovernmental actors.

The U.S.-hosted event on March 30th will focus on advancing technology for democracy, the topic of which will be a significant focus area of U.S. announcements during the summit. The Costa Rican event will focus on the role of youth in democratic systems; the Dutch event will focus on media freedom as a cornerstone of democracy; the South Korean event will focus on the fight against corruption; and the Zambian event will focus on bolstering free and fair elections.

"The U.S. Government is sending high-level delegations to each of our co-host partners’ events in support of their work," Berschinski said. For example, Ambassador Katherine Tai, the U.S. Trade Representative will lead our delegation in Korea, and Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, will lead the delegation to Costa Rica.

The Biden Administration is also slated to announce next week a number of new initiatives to demonstrate how it is working to advance its pro-democracy and pro-human rights agenda. These announcements will include significant additional financial investment in the Presidential Initiative for Democratic Renewal, which Biden launched at the first Summit with over $400 million in funding.

New funding will enable new and existing initiatives, programs, and policies that support free and independent media, combat corruption, bolster democratic reformers and human rights activists, defend free and fair elections, and ensure that technology works for and not against democratic societies, according to Berschinski.  "And we expect to place particular focus on announcements related to our technology for democracy agenda during the summit itself," he said.

As for other invitees and their commitments for democracy, the White House official said with each of those who attended the first Summit, "what we've seen is positive steps towards the summit’s theme in terms of strengthening democracy and promoting respect for human rights".

Berschinski went on to elaborate, "... This is a summit for democracy; it’s not necessarily a summit of democracies.  And despite the fact that we are pitching an extraordinarily large tent, we need to draw the line somewhere. So our main message to governments around the world is, as we always do, we want to engage on matters of democratic renewal, strengthening institutions that reflect popular will, and accountability, and transparency.  That’s not limited, of course, to the Summit for Democracy."

Ukraine is expected to be represented at the Summit by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. So is Georgia, which recently made headlines due to controversy amid a Russian-inspired "foreign agent" bill.

Berschinski told TURAN's correspondent: "We have made clear our concerns with democratic backsliding in Georgia.  The president of Georgia was just welcomed here in the United States. She’s been an outspoken voice for Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations, and she will be the representative of that country that we invite to the Summit for Democracy."

As for Azerbaijan and other non-invitees, Washington's message to their people is clear: "The process is going to continue"

"We would say to activists from governments that have not been invited, many of whom are participating in this process in different ways, the process is going to continue and there will be opportunity to engage moving forward, and that’s really at the root of this." Berschinski said?

The Summit for Democracy process "is about starting a conversation and having all actors who contribute to well-functioning democracy make commitments around improvement moving forward.  That’s not limited just to governments," Berschinski explained.

The full agenda for the upcoming summit can be found at www.state.gov/summit-for-democracy.

Alex Raufoglu