Joe Biden made it clear that world history stands at a crossroads, and decisions taken today will influence the direction of global processes for decades.
The President confirmed that the United States will support the promotion of democracy around the world with $690 million over the next two years under the Presidential Program.
And Joe Biden said, in this event, in which a number of heads of state and government participated, that within the framework of the presidential initiative for democratic renewal that was launched in December 2021, and in cooperation with Congress, 690 million dollars will be provided to the countries of the world. Plus $400 million in that time for transparency and to promote responsible governance, fight corruption, media freedom, and support technologies that work for democracy.
The president also reported that a new office will be established as part of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which will deal with democracy and human rights, among other things.
Joe Biden has described one focus of action to strengthen democracies that use technology for democratic governance, not to undermine it. He noted that for this purpose, he signed a presidential order at the beginning of the week restricting the use of commercially available spyware to the US government.
The president said that American taxpayers’ money cannot be shared with companies whose products lead to human rights abuses.
(Cover photo: Joe Biden at the virtual International Democracy Summit on March 29, 2023. Photo: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
