Eli Lake, Columnist

Will Biden Invite Afghanistan to His Democracy Summit?

In light of the debacle in Afghanistan, does the U.S. president expect any of his fellow democratic leaders to believe him when they convene in December?

August 12, 2021 at 9:30 PM UTC

By Eli Lake

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Soon to be evacuated: the U.S. embassy in Kabul.
Photographer: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

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The White House will soon be sending invitations to world leaders for its “Summit of Democracy,” currently scheduled for Dec. 9 and 10. It promises to be a grand and noble affair, with participants working to “build a shared foundation for global democratic renewal.”

So it’s worth asking if President Joe Biden plans to invite Ashraf Ghani, the president of Afghanistan. He is the leader of an “emerging democracy,” to borrow a phrase from the Biden administration, that is on the verge of falling into totalitarian darkness. The Taliban has been advancing through Afghanistan in the last week, making so many gains that the U.S. has sent a contingent of troops to Kabul to plan for the evacuation of the U.S. embassy there. U.S. officials are now predicting that Kabul could fall to the Taliban within a month.