United States President Joe Biden has invited 110 nations to a virtual summit for democracy scheduled for December 9-10, 2021. While its major Western allies, India, Israel, African nations and Taiwan, are included in the list, China has not been invited for the same. The State Department issued the list of participating countries on its website on Tuesday (local time).
US President Biden has invited around 110 countries to a virtual summit on democracy at Dec 9-10 virtual summit
— ANI (@ANI) November 24, 2021
China is not invited, while Taiwan is invited according to list released by the State Department on Tuesday. Turkey, a member of NATO, is also missing from the list pic.twitter.com/HfwifR67Rg
From the Middle East, Iraq and Israel are participating in the summit. Interestingly, Arab allies of the US, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates, are also missing from the list. From Africa, several nations, including Nigeria, South Africa and Niger, are among the invitees.
In the Indian subcontinent, while India, Pakistan are there in the list, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are missing.
Turkey, a NATO nation, is also missing from the list.
The Summit for Democracy
The summit was announced in August this year. At that time, the White House said the meeting would “galvanize commitments and initiatives across three principal themes: defending against authoritarianism, fighting corruption, and promoting respect for human rights.” According to the State Department’s website, the main focus of the summit would remain around the challenges and opportunities facing democracies. It would provide a platform for the leaders to announce commitments, reforms and initiatives to ‘defend democracy and human rights at home and abroad’.
The US administration has planned to consult experts from multilateral organizations, philanthropies, civil society, and the private sector to table practicable and bold ideas around defending against authoritarianism, addressing and fighting corruption and promoting respect for human rights.
US-China relationships
Though it was believed that after President Biden took over the US administration, its relationship with China would improve. However, things did not work the way anticipated. Recently, reports suggested that the US would boycott Beijing Olympics scheduled for 2022. As per a report by the Washington Post, the US is pegged not to send a delegation to China where the games are just three months away in February 2022. As per the report, while the American athletes will take part in the games, the official delegation of the United States, as well as state politicians, will not attend the ceremony.
