Preview of U.S. Participation in the Third Summit for Democracy

THE WASHINGTON FOREIGN PRESS CENTER, WASHINGTON, D.C.

MODERATOR:  Okay.  Good afternoon and welcome to the Washington Foreign Press Center, and welcome to those journalists participating online.  My name is Doris Robinson and I am the briefing moderator.  Today’s briefing is a preview of U.S. participation in the third Summit for Democracy.  

As a reminder, this briefing is on the record, and a transcript will be posted later today at fpc.state.gov.  For journalists online, please make sure that your name and media outlet are listed on your Zoom profile.  We are short on time today, so today’s briefing will end at 12:45.

And now I will introduce our distinguished briefers.  Maher Bitar is the deputy assistant to the President and NSC coordinator for intelligence and defense policy.  Kelly Razzouk is special assistant to the President and NSC senior director for democracy and human rights.  Both briefers will start with opening comments and then take your questions.  We’ll start with Maher.

MS RAZZOUK:  Thank you so much. 

MODERATOR:  Thank you. 

MS RAZZOUK:  Thanks so much, Doris, and thanks to all of you for being here today.  It’s such a pleasure to be here to discuss the Summit for Democracy that will be held in Seoul, South Korea March 18th through 20th.  As all of you know, President Biden launched the first Summit for Democracy in 2021.  The United States also co-hosted the second summit in 2023 with four partner governments from around the world.  I had the opportunity to participate in the events in Costa Rica last year, and they focused on youth and empowering young people in democracy promotion.

This year, we’re very proud to have passed leadership of the third summit to the Republic of South Korea.  This demonstrates the truth that promoting and protecting democracy is a shared desire and a shared responsibility.  People the world over share a common desire to live in free societies in which their governments hear their voices and respect their human dignity.  

The summit also takes place this year at a critical moment during what has been called the year of elections.  We are at an inflection point.  Globally, 2024 could be one of the most consequential election years in history.  National elections are anticipated in 40 countries, representing about half of the world’s population, and the Republic of South Korea has chosen as its theme for this year “Democracy for Future Generations,” something that we have also sought to emphasize, given the critical role that young people play in defending and supporting democracy.

The United States delegation to the summit will be led by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.  The U.S. delegation to Seoul will include senior U.S. Government officials who are leading key components of the U.S. Government’s engagement on summit themes.  These include leaders from the White House National Security Council, from the State Department, and from the United States Agency for International Development.  We intend to highlight the ways that the United States continues to lead in strengthening democratic resilience and respect for human rights around the world.  This includes expanded support to free and independent media, concrete actions to combat corruption, additional resources dedicated to bolstering human rights and democratic reformers, and our continued focus on free and fair elections globally.

For the U.S. high-level event at the summit, we have decided for the first time to convene a meeting on the topic of the misuse of commercial spyware.  This issue has been a priority for the Biden administration.  We have taken a series of critical steps to address this issue that Coordinator Bitar will outline, and the reason we’re highlighting this at summit is because it’s both a national security and intelligence threat, but also a threat to democracy.  While the misuse of commercial spyware by governments has eroded democratic values, misuse of commercial spyware by governments has also been linked to arbitrary detentions, disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and transnational repression.  

The threat of commercial spyware to human rights and to fundamental freedoms is not just theoretical.  The misuse of commercial spyware has a monumental impact on the ability of brave individuals around the world to express themselves and their opinions.  It limits the ability of journalists to expose the truth to their communities around the world.  It prevents opposition candidates from freely challenging the status quo.  

And perhaps even more importantly, these threats do not just affect those with confirmed intrusions.  They have a chilling effect on important reporting, backsliding independent media, preventing the exposure of corruption, intimidating opposition candidates, undermining political competition, and bolstering oppressive environments.  This can lead to the most heroic individuals – those fighting for freedom, for democracy, for truth – living in constant states of fear.  We will be bringing those voices from civil society, from governments, from the private sector together in Seoul to discuss this important issue and the multistakeholder approach to addressing it.

I’d like to turn it over now to Coordinator Bitar, who will discuss the joint statement on efforts to counter the proliferation and misuse of commercial spyware that was launched at last year’s second Summit for Democracy, as well as a set of actions the United States has taken since the second summit on this issue.  Thank you.

MR BITAR:  Thank you.  As Kelly noted, the U.S. Government is undertaking a comprehensive campaign to counter the proliferation and misuse of commercial spyware, which we see both – as both a national security threat as well as a threat to human rights.  As Kelly noted, commercial spyware misuse has posed a distinct risk for U.S. Government personnel and has had tragic consequences globally.  Journalists the world over, like yourselves, have been targeted by such sophisticated commercial surveillance technology, as have political actors, human rights defenders, and everyday citizens.  

As many of you will recall, we announced a series of measures at the second Summit for Democracy last March.  President Biden issued a new executive order, the first of its kind in the world, to regulate U.S. Government use of commercial spyware.  This was a significant step to ensure the U.S. Government does not use or enable commercial spyware that poses a counterintelligence threat to the United States or is being used – misused against Americans or to target activists, journalists, dissidents, and others.  Two, to leverage the U.S. Government’s own purchasing power to discourage misuse of commercial spyware; and finally, to lead by example internationally.  

At the last summit, President Biden announced the executive order and explained in his remarks, quote, “U.S. taxpayer dollars should not support companies that are willing to sell their products to … [abet] human rights violations,” end quote.  The United States, working with 10 likeminded partners, also announced at the summit a novel international joint statement on an effort to counter the proliferation and misuse of commercial spyware.  The joint statement for the first time collectively affirms the threat posed by the misuse of commercial spyware and resolves to implement domestic measures and take regulatory and other actions to counter the proliferation and misuse of this sophisticated technology.

Finally, along with 45 other countries, the United States also agreed to new, quote, “Guiding Principles on Government Use of Surveillance Technologies,” end quote, an arrangement which illustrates how governments can maintain their commitment to respect democratic values and protect human rights in the responsible use of surveillance technology.  

Now, since last March, over the past year, U.S. Government has maintained momentum and expanded upon these efforts in consequential ways.  First, in July, the Department of Commerce placed new export controls on additional commercial spyware vendors, which followed an initial tranche of Entity List designations in November of 2021.  In October, we worked with 59 other countries at the Human Rights Council in Geneva to issue a joint statement titled Heightened Risks Associated with Surveillance Technologies and the Importance of Safeguards.

Just a month ago, on February 5th, the Secretary of State announced a new visa ban policy to block the entry to the United States of individuals who have been involved with, who have enabled or profited from commercial spyware misuse.  And just last week, on March 5th, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed financial sanctions on five entities and two individuals involved with commercial spyware entities that pose a counterintelligence threat to the U.S. Government and have flouted calls for safeguards while continuing to enable human rights abuses.  This is the first time the U.S. Government has leveraged sanctions against actors involved in commercial spyware misuse.

Finally, on March 7th, just a few days ago, the White House convened members of the investor community for the first time for a dialogue on responsible investment of trusted capital in a number of domains with national security implications, including commercial spyware, artificial intelligence, and cyber security, among others.  At this event, the investors announced a set of principles and commitments to guide investments in ways that promote the values of free and open societies.  

Now, together these actions send a clear message to commercial spyware vendors and those that enable them that irresponsible business practices that pose a counterintelligence threat to the United States and that enable human rights abuses globally will be met with clear consequences.

Our efforts now converge at the next Summit for Democracy, which Secretary of State Blinken and other senior officials from the White House, the State Department, and USAID will attend.  Importantly, we plan to announce at the summit that several new likeminded partner countries will be signing on to the joint statement on commercial spyware.  This will reflect growing international recognition of the shared challenge posed by spyware misuse and the need for collective action.  We will also convene for the first time ministers and senior officials from a broad range of governments to specifically discuss the shared challenge of commercial spyware proliferation and misuse.  

And to assure a broad range of voices are heard, this dedicated event at the summit will feature a multi-stakeholder panel with diverse representation, including a person targeted by commercial spyware, a civil society representative, a representative from leading – from a leading technology company involved in exposing commercial spyware, and finally, a member of the investor community involved in steering responsible investments.

This event will reinforce the need for governments, civil society, industry, and investors to work collectively to confront this threat.  This issue presents a rare circumstance in which stakeholders from all of these sectors are in fact rowing in the same direction and have a unique opportunity to take mutually reinforcing action.  

For example, for many years civil society organizations like the Citizen Lab, Access Now, and Amnesty International have conducted invaluable investigations and reporting on intrusions, and have provided direct support to victims.  Philanthropies in partnership with tech companies are funding organizations that support victims and promote accountability for the misuse of commercial spyware.  Just last week, the Ford Foundation announced $4 million of grants globally in partnership with Apple and other companies for this important work.  Tech companies have been conducting their own investigations and are releasing reports on incidents and trends, including recent reports from both Meta and Google over the past few weeks.  

And finally, investors are starting to recognize the need to ensure their capital is supporting rather than undermining free and open societies.  As noted previously, a number of investment companies came together to release new voluntary principles and commitments that touch on this, which is an important first step, although certainly more is needed.  Now, we look forward to bringing together these communities at the summit to take stock of what has been accomplished over the past year and to assess what additional actions should be considered, including by governments, civil society, industry, and investors around the world.  Thank you very much. 

MODERATOR:  Great.  Thank you.  We’ll start with questions now.  We’ll start in the room.  Please raise your hand, and when I call on you, please state your name and your media organization.  For journalists online, please raise your virtual hand.  And let’s start here.  

QUESTION:  Thank you for doing this.  My name is Song Sangho, reporter from Yonhap News Agency from South Korea.  And I hope that you can have a good time in Seoul.  And I have two questions.  From the U.S. Government perspective, what is the meaning of South Korea hosting this democracy at this time?  And my second question is, do you expect that the participating democracy at the third summit will have any opportunities to discuss North Korea’s human rights violations or any acts that run counter to democratic values, either at the summit or on the sidelines?  Thanks.   

MS RAZZOUK:  Thank you so much for that question.  As President Biden said when we convened the first summit in 2021, democracy needs champions globally, and so we are so thrilled that South Korea has stepped up as one of those champions to host the Third Summit for Democracy.  We are thrilled to partner with them, and we see real value in the symbolic nature of them hosting the summit and bringing together governments, civil society leaders, NGOs, participants from all over the world to come to Seoul and to make pledges, to make commitments, and to talk about democracy and how important that is.  So we see that as being truly valuable.  

To your question about specific countries who might be discussed at this summit, obviously the human rights situation in North Korea is something that we’ve taken very seriously and we’ve spoken out against that many times.  For the summit itself, we haven’t viewed the summit as a shaming exercise.  What we have viewed it as is a place to talk about our affirmative vision for democracy and to bring together countries from around the world to talk about and to share best practices about democracy promotion and about human rights issues around the world.  

Thank you. 

MODERATOR:  Thank you.  Let’s go here.  

QUESTION:  Thank you.  Guys, thank you for doing this.  I have a couple of questions.  I can imagine that Bangladesh —  

MODERATOR:  Can you say your name.  

QUESTION:  Oh, my name is Mushfiqul Fazal.  I’m a Bangladeshi journalist representing Just News BD.  I can imagine that Bangladesh authorities not receiving an invitation for the upcoming summit quite reasonably.  My question is, why have not we seen any visible steps taken after the sham election in Bangladesh?  Before the election, Biden administration promised to take all necessary steps to ensure a free, fair, and credible election, as we have seen your actions after election in Nicaragua, Nigeria, Guatemala, and Bulgaria also.  

MS RAZZOUK:  Thank you so much.  Well, I can’t speak to the status of invitation for the summit.  That would need be directed at South Korea, who is the host of the summit this year.  But with regards to your question about the elections, we have shared the view – with other observers – that the elections were not free or fair, and we regretted that not all parties were able to participate.  We remain concerned about the arrests of political opposition members.  And looking ahead, the United States remains committed to partnering with Bangladesh to advance our shared vision for free and open Indo-Pacific.  We want to deepen our people to people economic ties, and we’ll continue to discuss those issues with the Bangladeshi Government going forward.  

QUESTION:  (Inaudible) as the largest democracy in the world, (inaudible) on democracy – freedom of expression, minority rights, and human rights? 

MS RAZZOUK:  We said very clearly that every democracy is different, that there is no blueprint for democracy.  We obviously had addressed democratic reform and efforts in the context of our bilateral relationship with these various countries, but we’re – for the summit purposes, we’re very focused on democracy globally and how we can share best practices and promote democracy, given the fact that, as I mentioned previously, 2024 is truly the year of elections.  And so we’re very focused on ensuring that there can be youth engagement, that we can see all of these stakeholders coming together and share best practices at the summit in terms of next steps with regards to democracy promotion around the world.  

QUESTION:  Thank you. 

MODERATOR:  Let’s go here.  

QUESTION:  The whole spyware aspect that you guys were talking about, one of the most well-known commercial – pieces of commercial spyware was Pegasus.  The company that made that, NSO, was blacklisted by the Biden administration for, quote, being “contrary to the foreign policy and national security interests of the U.S.”  But how does the U.S. think that they complicate – the relationship between NSO and the Israeli Government complicates the way that the American administration gives aid to Israel given the current situation? 

MR BITAR:  Thank you.  So what I would underscore is that the policy approach of the Biden administration has been one that is government and country agnostic.  We have looked very clearly at the actions of commercial spyware vendors themselves.  We have looked at the evidence that has emerged, including evidence, as I mentioned, that civil society organizations have been able to surface as journalists have been able to surface, and we have taken as a result appropriate action focused on the activities that have been taking place that meet the threshold that was outlined, as you said, by the Department of Commerce, for instance.  

So what we would underscore is we have taken a number of actions, as I mentioned.  One is using Department of Commerce authorities.  More recently you may have seen we leveraged Treasury sanctions authorities against a different commercial spyware vendor.  And what we have also done is ensure that we engage diplomatically with a range of countries around the world, and that’s why for us the joint statement that we issued at the last Summit for Democracy and that we would be focusing on and updating at the current Summit for Democracy will be an important reflection of the growing international recognition of the challenge here and the need to ensure that there’s collective action.  

So just to come back to your question, as a result, the way we’ve approached this is really going after activities rather than – of these commercial vendors rather than any other angle. 

QUESTION:  It’s (inaudible), it’s wireless, has to be approved by the Israeli ministry of defense.  So how do you separate the two?

MR BITAR:  Again, we look at misuse around the world.  So the extent to which there has been misuse by governments around the world, or also risks to U.S. Government personnel.  So the extent to which U.S. Government personnel may be at risk or may have been targeted by those activities.  And I would only be able to go that far.

MODERATOR:  Thank you.  We have – we’re short on time.  Let’s go ahead and take a question online.  Robert Papa from MCN TV, Albania, go ahead with your question.  

QUESTION:  Yes, do you hear me? 

MODERATOR:  Yes. 

QUESTION:  You have been talking a lot about democracy.  Albania is a hybrid democracy.  I don’t know if you have an idea about the Charles McGonigal.  The head of counterintelligence was – he was sentenced by the court in D.C., but the Albanian primer was involved, under investigation.  And why U.S. Government is tolerating Albanian primer with a huge corruption in his government too?

MS RAZZOUK:  Thank you.  I’m not familiar with exactly what you’re referring to, so we can definitely take that back and come back to you on that.  Thank you. 

QUESTION:  Thanks.

MODERATOR:  Thank you.  And we’ll take our last question here.  

QUESTION:  I think this initiative which you have started under the Biden administration – yes, this is Hamdi Mohamed Salah from Egypt – Egypt news.  The initiative taken by your administration in 2021 (inaudible) agreed initiative to leading (inaudible) accounts such as democracy and so on.  The problem is, are you going to institutionalize this initiative so it will continue, particularly as you are talking about the year of election?  So is it going to continue?  Is it only going to be on the very wishes of other governments like South Korea or Switzerland to be able to cooperate?  That’s first one.

But the part two:  You need to develop an approach for regional consensus.  So you have a particular program you’re fitting for a particular region, which can be edging out from the own (inaudible).

MS RAZZOUK:  Thank you very much for that question.  I think we need to contact you for the next summit for some of your great ideas. 

As you know from the last summit gathering that we had, there were regional gatherings that were held all around the world, and this year we did see it as such a positive step to have South Korea taking a leadership role and stepping up to host the summit.  But we are talking to our partners and looking forward at what we can do to ensure that we institutionalize some of the gains that have been made through the summits and that we look forward to future summit gatherings and to talk to our partners about how we can continue that. 

So I won’t get ahead of any of the announcements that will be made at the summit itself, but those are definitely questions that we’re looking at, and I think the point about ensuring that this is a cross-regional and multi-stakeholder summit gathering is something that is very important and that we would like to see continue. 

MODERATOR:  Thank you.  I’m afraid we’re out of time for questions.  I’ll turn it back to our briefers for any closing remarks.  

MS RAZZOUK:  Thank you, Doris. 

MR BITAR:  Thank you. 

MODERATOR:  Thank you.  Well, I would like to thank our briefers for taking the time to brief us today and for all of the journalists who participated.  This concludes today’s briefing.  Thank you.