Pakistan decided on Tuesday to work bilaterally with the US to promote democratic norms rather than attend the democracy summit taking place in Washington this week.
The American-led virtual meeting officially kicks off today. Turkiye and China have not received invitations to the conference.
As China, Pakistan’s “all-weather friend” and the summit’s exclusionee, had not been invited, the question of Pakistan’s participation in the Second Summit for Democracy in the US had been under discussion for some time. Pakistan has to evaluate the advantages of joining against the hazards to its diplomatic relations when making this difficult decision.
As the US has already done, China would be keenly observing these overtures India and Pakistan were both invited to the summit, just like at the first democracy summit in 2021.
India may attend this year’s gathering as well as the past one. Pakistan apparently decided not to attend the inaugural summit because the Biden administration did not try to contact Imran Khan, who was the country’s prime minister at the time.
According to sources, Beijing would prefer Pakistan to withdraw from the “difficult” discussion, but doing so would be inimical to US interests at a time when Islamabad needs Washington’s support to reach an agreement with the IMF.
The article claims that Pakistan was also concerned about the decision to exclude Turkiye from the conference.
Today, a statement was released saying Pakistan values its friendship with the United States, according to the Foreign Office.
“This relationship has significantly broadened and expanded under the Biden Administration. For the benefit of regional peace, security, and development, we are still dedicated to further fostering this relationship, the statement stated.
The FO gave an explanation of why Pakistan will not participate in the summit, claiming that Pakistan had not participated in the summit process, which started in 2021 and needed nations to make specific national pledges.
In order to advance human rights and the fight against corruption, Pakistan said it would work bilaterally with the United States and the other summit co-hosts. “The Summit process is now at an advanced stage,” Pakistan said.
