ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday refused to participate in a two-day virtual democracy summit convened by the United States, as the administration in Washington tries to bring together a select group of countries to join the online gathering.
The bilateral relations between the two countries have remained strained for the last several years since the US officials thought they were not getting requisite support from Pakistan to win the war in Afghanistan.
However, they have suffered a greater setback since the arrival of President Joe Biden who refused to speak to Pakistan's prime minister, even as his administration continued to seek Pakistan's support in Afghanistan.
"We are thankful to the United States for inviting Pakistan for participation in the Summit for Democracy, being held virtually on 9-10 December 2021," said the foreign office in a statement, adding: "We value our partnership with the U.S. which we wish to expand both bilaterally as well as in terms of regional and international cooperation. We remain in contact with the U.S. on a range of issues and believe that we can engage on this subject at an opportune time in the future."
The statement maintained Pakistan had "a large functioning democracy with an independent judiciary, vibrant civil society, and a free media."
It added the country was already striving to strengthen the democratic processes by instituting wide-ranging reforms to fulfil the objective.
Without specifying any reason why it wanted to stay away from the summit, the statement promised that Pakistan would work for greater international cooperation and constructive engagement with the US.
The democracy summit was a major campaign promise made by President Biden who said he wanted to hold such an event to prevent democratic backsliding by strengthening human rights and basic freedoms across the world.
The event became controversial, however, after Russia and China were not invited to it, making some analysts describe it as an American attempt to contain China.
"Clearly, strategic considerations about countering China are at play in inviting very troubled, backsliding democracies like India and the Philippines that are in China's neighborhood," Reuters quoted research director at the Project on Middle East Democracy Amy Hawthorne while reporting on the preparations of the event.
The top diplomats of Russia and China in Washington also criticized the way the US was planning the conference, saying it reflected Washington's "Cold-War mentality" in a joint op-ed article.
The two diplomats added that the US had empowered itself to define "who is a 'democratic country' and who is not eligible for such status" by holding the event.
