WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden will issue a clarion call on Friday to the world’s democracies, saying representative governments are “under assault” from authoritarian regimes seeking to dominate the global order.
“We must demonstrate that democracies can still deliver for our people,” Biden will say during a virtual session of the Munich Security Conference, according to excerpts of his remarks released by the White House.
“That is our galvanizing mission,” Biden plans to tell other world leaders, in his first speech to an international audience since taking office.
Biden’s visceral appeal to America’s allies represents a 180-degree turnaround from the Trump era, and some European diplomats may still be suffering from whiplash.
Biden has made it clear he wants to repair America’s alliances after four years in which former President Donald Trump alienated key U.S. partners with his abrasive style and erratic, sometimes punitive foreign policies.
“We are in the midst of a fundamental debate about the future direction of our world, between those who argue that … autocracy is the best way forward and those who understand that democracy is essential to meeting those challenges,” Biden will say at the Munich conference.
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He will call on other world leaders to join together to defend self-government and “prove that our model isn’t a relic” of history.
“We have to defend it, strengthen it, renew it,” Biden will say.
“If we work together with our democratic partners, with strength and confidence, I know that we will meet every challenge and outpace every challenger,” he will say.
Biden’s remarks to the Munich conference came just hours after he participated in a closed-door session with leaders of the G7 countries, which focused on the global response to the COVID pandemic and its crippling economic impacts.
