Use api data inside a javascript script

I am rendering an EJS template with an array. But inside the script I can’t access the data. How do I access that data inside a script ?

API CODE

app.get('/', (req, res) => {
    var countries = [
        {
            name: 'america',
            cities: [
                'New york',
                'Los Angeles'
            ]
        },
        {
            name: 'india',
            cities: [
                'Delhi',
                'Mumbai'
            ]
        }
    ]
    res.render('home', {
        countries
    });
});

JS SCRIPT

<script>
        function populate(sel1, sel2) {
            console.log('funcc');
            console.log(countries);
        }
    </script>

The error in chrome console is:
Uncaught ReferenceError: countries is not defined