WASHINGTON, 10 December 2021, (TON): US President Joe Biden gathered over 100 world leaders at a summit and made a plea to bolster democracies around the world, calling safeguarding rights and freedoms in the face of rising authoritarianism the "defining challenge" of the current era.

In the opening speech for his virtual "Summit for Democracy" a first-of-its-kind gathering intended to counter democratic backsliding worldwide, Biden said global freedoms were under threat from autocrats seeking to expand power, export influence and justify repression.

He said "we stand at an inflection point in our history, in my view. ...Will we allow the backward slide of rights and democracy to continue unchecked? Or will we together have a vision...and courage to once more lead the march of human progress and human freedom forward?.”

The conference is a test of Biden's assertion, announced in his first foreign policy address in February, that he would return the United States to global leadership to face down authoritarian forces, after the country's global standing took a beating under predecessor Donald Trump.