Biden stresses transparent, accountable governments in Democracy summit

President Joe Biden on Friday emphasized making governments transparent, accountable, more resilient against the buffering forces of autocracy in his closing remarks at the virtual Summit for Democracy.

"We have a responsibility to listen to our citizens to strengthen the guardrails of democracy and to drive reforms that are going to make governments transparent, accountable, more resilient against the buffering forces of autocracy," said the US President.

For the last two days, the government leaders as well as democratic reformers, from every region of the world are talking about the challenges that democracies are facing and the opportunities they have.

Biden also said that protecting the immediate freedom and status of women is the investment in the success of democracy.

"We have shown the spotlight on the importance of protecting immediate freedom and how advancements in the status of women and girls is an investment in the success of democracy," said Biden.

Talking about concerns of young people, he said, "We have heard the concerns of young people who has a greater stake in future than anyone else, made them clear what matters to them most and how important it is to make sure their voices are included in the democracies."

He also laid stress on the importance of technology for the advancement of democracy.

"We focussed on the need to empower human rights defenders and make sure technological advancement. Technology enables so much of our lives that are used to advance democracies to lift people up not to hold them down," said the US President.

Sharing his experience on unique challenges democracies face around the world, he said, "Each of our nations faces unique challenges, and many of these specific circumstances are different. The threat we face and the solutions we seek have a common. This is not a struggle of anyone facing alone, it's all of us and the commitments we made to ourselves, to our people, to one another that will not only strengthen our own democracies but push back autocracies, fight corruption and promote human rights for all people. This is going to help seed further ground for democracies to bloom around the world and I am shown courage by energy and enthusiasm we have seen rally people around in support of our shared democratic values."

He further reiterated US commitment towards strengthening democracy. "The US is committed to strengthening our democracy in home, work with parties around the world, around the globe to prove that democracies can deliver to people and this is the matter most to them," said Biden.