The summit is scheduled for December 9-10.

It will focus on challenges and opportunities facing democracies and will provide a platform for leaders to announce both individual and collective commitments, reforms, and initiatives to defend democracy and human rights at home and abroad.

“Democracy doesn’t happen by accident. We have to defend it, fight for it, strengthen it, renew it,” Joe Biden says.

Apart from Uzbekistan, Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan – are not among those invited.