© EPA-EFE/ALEX EDELMAN/TASS

March 28 to 30 witnessed the second online Summit for Democracy 2023 arranged by US President Joseph Biden. The first one took place back in December 2021. This time, the host invited eight more leaders to account for a total of 121. Besides, the US President was not the only chairman, with various foreign representatives having helped him on the part of Europe, Asia, Africa and South America: the Dutch Prime Minister, the Presidents of South Korea, Zambia, and Costa Rica respectively.

The invitation to the summit of a large number of states from Asia, Africa and Latin America indicates that the present-day world is really undergoing global change, hence Washington's desire to attach certain countries to its camp, regardless of their international weight. One may say that to the United States, the Summit for Democracy is obviously symbolic and creating a false sense of global control. But in fact, such an approach is merely dividing the planet into “us and them”. This year’s summit has appeared as a US attempt to regain its part as a world leader and legitimize tools to interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign states.

It should be noted right away that Pakistan, a close American ally, refused to attend, while Turkey and Hungary were not invited at all, although both are NATO members, and the latter is also part of the EU. Singapore, which plays a key role in connecting the West and the East, was also left out in the cold. Russia, China, Iran and Egypt were certainly not listed among those welcome, unlike Ukraine and Taiwan.

As stated by the State Department, the summit particularly aims to enhance the unity of democratic countries with an eye for the rising autocracies, among which the White House sees Russia and China. Still, despite event planners’ endeavors, it did not cause a hoohah even in the American media. Thus, the Foreign Affairs magazine released a really telling headline: "The U.S. Doesn’t Need Another Democracy Summit. It Needs a Plan to Confront Authoritarianism." By the way, the outlet notes that 72% of the world's population live in autocracies, although back in 2012 this figure was 46%.  And here we are: Washington’s Summit for Democracy embraces a mere quarter of the world's population.

After the first summit, many people came to criticize the US special role, so this time President Biden sought to mend his ways and expanded the list of leaders invited. But it is still the White House that decides whom to eventually invite. The second summit’s agenda was also expanded and featured the Ukrainian conflict, the fight against corruption, the status of women, cooperation to promote democracy across the globe, and other issues. In general, the entire narrative was clearly anti-Russian and anti-Chinese, which could not but induce an appropriate response with both Moscow and Beijing.

Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that the US-arranged Summit for Democracy can hardly be classified as a major event. "America, which, despite everything, still claims to be a world teacher on the issues of so-called democracy, is making a second attempt to bring together a number of countries as 'students' to lecture them about morals. Those who wanted to take part in this lesson, well it is their sovereign business, but here, in fact, many people see that such attempts to divide the world into first-class and second-class countries are now perceived by many with smiles," Peskov said.

In turn, Russian security chief Nikolai Patrushev told the following in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta on the eve of the summit’s opening ceremony: "The Summit for Democracy… certainly takes place within the framework of the US presidential race that has already begun. It will be another meeting in favor of the world order, where Washington wants to play a central role indefinitely, and any dissidents can be expected to be labeled as ‘non-democratic states’… While disingenuously talking about freedom of choice, the United States, which has proclaimed itself the world's biggest dictator, will in fact simply abuse the countries whose sovereignty and democracy it violated."

China also lambasted the 2nd Summit for Democracy, deeming events of the kind as needless and actually sowing discord and confrontation. This came in a statement by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning. "What the world needs today is not to interfere in other countries' internal affairs under the guise of democracy but to advocate genuine democracy, reject pseudo-democracy and jointly promote greater democracy in international relations," she said at a briefing.

However, these voices from Moscow and Beijing will unlikely stop the United States from spreading and promoting its "true democracy" ideas worldwide. In his forum speech Joe Biden said the White House allocated $9.5 billion in 2022-2024 to support democracy and human rights around the world.  Interestingly, after coming to power in January 2021, the US President declared it right away that one of his key objectives in office would be protection and spreading of democracy. At the same time, he has tirelessly reiterated about a global battle of democracies against autocracies going on right now, which Washington and its allies are tasked to win. Apparently, this is what the current White House head allocates $9.5 billion for.

The second Summit for Democracy’s final declaration was only supported by 73 countries out of the 121, as the document embraced support for the basic principles of democracy, such as free and fair elections, and urged to hold Russia accountable for invading Ukraine. Twelve forum participants dissociated themselves from certain parts of the declaration, with India, Israel and the Philippines rejecting the paragraph calling to prosecute human rights abusers and give weight to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Beyond a shadow of doubt, this year’s Summit for Democracy has reaffirmed an end to the unipolar world, and Washington’s failure to dictate its terms (mainly by force) to other countries. The United States has been doing so for the entire period of its existence, considering itself a gold standard for democracy and willing all the others to comply. But that era has sunk into oblivion, and Washington will have to put that in its pipe and smoke it, whether it wants it or not.