US President Joe Biden announced today, Thursday, that democracy in the world faces "significant and troubling challenges," at the opening of discussions on a two-day virtual summit devoted to the topic of democracy.
In a speech from the White House at the opening of the virtual summit called by more than a hundred countries, Biden stressed that the United States itself must "struggle ceaselessly to live up to its democratic ideals."
Two weeks ago, Biden invited the leaders of about 110 countries to participate in this summit.
The list came in agreement with what was previously published in the American media, as it was empty of all Arab countries except for Iraq.
In return, Israel was invited to the summit.
The US president did not invite China and Russia, the two main rivals of the United States, to this summit, but in return he invited Taiwan.
Since his arrival to the White House last January, the Democratic president has not hidden that his foreign policy is based on a struggle between the democracies led by his country and the "authoritarian regimes" best represented - in his opinion - by China and Russia.
The "Democracy Summit" was one of his electoral campaign promises, and he decided to hold the first version of it virtually today, the fifth and tomorrow, Friday, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the second version to be held in attendance at the end of next year.