Secretary General at the Forum 2000 in Prague

 

At the Forum 2000 taking place in Prague, Secretary General dr. Mantas Adomėnas addressed the Plenary Session of the International Coalition for Democratic Renewal (ICDR), of which he is also a member. He spoke on the need to counter the ever more effective global networks of autocrats in times of increasingly fruitless global responses to aggressive autocratic expansion.

“Now democracies are at a dialectical disadvantage insofar as they are defenders of the status quo – which is often imperfect, compromised, and boring. Whereas autocrats are challengers, bearers of the new reality – however unsympathetic and dangerous this reality may be. Nonetheless, this gives momentum to the autocratic tendencies. Democracies have to agree on a shared goal to move forward to – they have to propose a new vision of the free, democratic, prosperous global order” – he said.

SG Adomėnas also emphasised the need for democracies to cooperate on the practical level in sharing best practices in building resilience to disinformation, stopping transnational repression, building solidarity network to prevent economic coercion, and pooling their political will to reinvigorate multilateral organizations through joint initiatives, such as reform of the UN Security Council and creation of the UN Special Rapporteur for Democracy.