Enterprise-Record (Chico)

White House champions summit initiative­s despite absence of key figures

- By Elliot Spagat and Chris Megerian

LOS ANGELES » The White House on Wednesday pushed back against the notion that the absence of several key leaders from this week’s Summit for the Americas amounts to a backslide for democracy as administra­tion officials sought to play up efforts on food security, climate and other areas to be discussed at this week’s summit.

President Joe Biden’s top advisers argued that the summit wasn’t a lost cause just because Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and other leaders have decided to stay away from the gathering over the U.S. excluding Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua — all countries that send large numbers of migrants to the U.S. and neighborin­g countries — because they are led by authoritar­ians.

A stark reminder of the boycotts came when the president and first lady Jill Biden stood on the red carpet in Los Angeles to greet foreign leaders attending, and few of the arrivals were heads of state. Instead of Guatemala’s president, Biden shook hands with the foreign minister. He next greeted the minister of public affairs for El Salvador, the foreign minister for Honduras and the Mexico’s secretary of foreign affairs.

Among the new programs Biden is expected to unveil in the coming days are a $300 million in food security financing initiative, a new Caribbean climate partnershi­p that will help Caribbean countries access low carbon energy sources, and a program to train 500,000 health workers in the Americas over the next five years.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the White House “will be putting specific dollars into producing tangible results.”

“When you tally all that up and look at the practical impact of what the summit deliverabl­es from the United States will mean for the public sphere, it is significan­tly more impactful on the actual lives and livelihood­s of the people of this region than the kinds of extractive projects that China has been invested in,” Sullivan told reporters Wednesday aboard Air Force One.

Migration has taken center stage at an assembly of Western Hemisphere leaders, reflecting its emergence as a top foreign policy issue at this week’s summit, but it has largely been overshadow­ed by difference­s over Biden’s invitation list.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken called difference­s in political outlooks a “strength” of the region.

“We have democratic government­s of the left, of the right, and of the center. But despite what political difference­s there are, if the fundamenta­ls are there, we’re going to be able to work very, very effectivel­y together,” Blinken said at a summit event.

 ?? MARCO UGARTE — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? Migrants, many from Central American and Venezuela, walk along the Huehuetan highway in Chiapas state, Mexico, early Tuesday.
MARCO UGARTE — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Migrants, many from Central American and Venezuela, walk along the Huehuetan highway in Chiapas state, Mexico, early Tuesday.

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