Amid speculations that it may skip US President Joe Biden led ‘Democracy Summit’ which is being held in virtual format on December 9-10, Pakistan Foreign Office on Wednesday said that it ‘values its partnership with the US’. Thanking the United States for inviting Pakistan for the summit, Pakistan claimed that it is a ‘functional democracy with independent judiciary, vibrant civil society and a free media’.
However, Pakistan remained non-committal on whether or not it would attend the summit especially since its all weather friend China has been kept out of it. Last month, the Biden administration had invited 110 countries to attend the virtual summit. China and Turkey were amongst the few countries that were left out.
“We remain in contact with the US on a range of issues and believe that we can engage on this subject at an opportune time in the future,” Pakistan’s statement on the summit said. And while Pakistan did not specifically said it would be skipping the summit, the officials are reportedly maintaining a silence on the same. However, by and large it seems like Pakistan is skipping the summit after best friend China wasn’t invited by the US. Pakistani media has also reported that Islamabad will not attend the ‘Democracy summit’.
Reports suggest that China has not objected to Pakistan attending the summit but it seems Pakistan on its own decided to not upset the friend. China’s exclusion from the list while inclusion of Taiwan had triggered a strong reaction from Beijing. Interestingly, Arab allies of the US, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates, are also missing from the list. Turkey, a NATO nation, is also missing from the list. Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are also missing from the list.
