Pakistan might skip Biden-led ‘Democracy Summit’ after China’s exclusion

Amid speculations that it could skip US President Joe Biden led ‘Democracy Summit’ which is being held in digital format on December 9-10, Pakistan Foreign Office on Wednesday stated that it ‘values its partnership with the US’. Thanking the United States for inviting Pakistan for the summit, Pakistan claimed that it’s a ‘functional democracy with independent judiciary, vibrant civil society and a free media’.
However, Pakistan remained non-committal on whether or not or not it might attend the summit particularly since its all climate pal China has been saved out of it. Last month, the Biden administration had invited 110 international locations to attend the digital summit. China and Turkey had been amongst the few international locations that had been disregarded.
“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 assertion on the summit stated. And whereas Pakistan didn’t particularly stated it might be skipping the summit, the officers are reportedly sustaining a silence on the identical. However, by and enormous it looks like Pakistan is skipping the summit after finest pal China wasn’t invited by the US. Pakistani media has additionally reported that Islamabad is not going to attend the ‘Democracy summit’.
Reports counsel that China has not objected to Pakistan attending the summit however it appears Pakistan by itself determined to not upset the pal. China’s exclusion from the record whereas inclusion of Taiwan had triggered a powerful response from Beijing. Interestingly, Arab allies of the US, together with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates, are additionally lacking from the record. Turkey, a NATO nation, can also be lacking from the record. Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are additionally lacking from the record.