Biden’s lineup to ‘Summit for Democracy’ raises questions over his diplomatic priorities

The US state department unveiled the invitation list for Biden’s “Summit for Democracy,” where 110 national delegations will gather next month.

The summit will focus on three principal themes, namely defending against authoritarianism, fighting corruption, and promoting respect for human rights.

International media outlets took note of the countries included in the list, while giving just as much interest to the excluded ones, projecting on the list Biden’s diplomacy approach.

All Maghreb countries have been excluded from the summit, as well as most Middle Eastern countries, with the exception of Iraq and Israel.

Regarding the exclusion of Morocco from the summit, head of the Moroccan League for the Defense of Human Rights Adel Tchikito told Hespress AR that “upon examining the list, it becomes evident that the US has made its decision based on its own classification of democratic systems, relying on indicators and data available to them.”

The Biden administration did, however, invite Poland, India, and the Philippines, which have also had questionable democratic backslidings in recent years.

Meanwhile, Hungary is the only EU member to be excluded from the event. While Turkey, Russia, and China are too, missing from the list. The latter protested the invitation of Taiwan, which China considers an integral part of the sovereign sphere.

Moscow also reacted to its exclusion, criticizing the “US’s divisiveness, and the country’s attempt to privatize the term ‘democracy’.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “the US prefers to create new dividing lines, to divide countries into those that – in their opinion – are good, and those that are bad.”

Tchikito stated that some countries’ exclusion could be an extension of the US’s hostility towards China and Russia, which may have prompted Biden’s administration to exclude allies of these governments.

Aziz Ghali, president of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights, told Hespress AR that the list was not the result of a general consensus, considering that “many democratic party members are not backing the conference in the first place.”

Ghali said that Morocco and Tunisia’s exclusion simply reflects the fact that the region is not among Biden’s priorities,” highlighting that “while on an official tour of Africa, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken only visited sub-Saharan countries.”