Pakistan FO fails to give compelling reason for declining US invite for Democracy Summit

At the same time, Pakistan tried to win over the US by emphasising the importance Islamabad attached to its relationship with Washington.

“We remain closely engaged with the US on a range of issues. We value our partnership with the US and we wish to expand it bilaterally as well as in terms of regional and international cooperation,” Foreign Office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar told a weekly news briefing on Friday.

But the spokesperson failed to cite a compelling reason as to why Pakistan opted out of the democracy summit if the country valued its partnership with Washington.

Asked to explain the rationale behind Pakistan’s move, the spokesperson referred to the statement already put out by the ministry on the issue and insisted he had nothing to add to it.

“With regard to the summit for democracy, I would like to say that our issued statement speaks for itself.”

The cautious reaction and the carefully-drafted statement suggested that it was not an easy decision for Pakistan to take.

Pakistani media reported that China was keen that Pakistan must stay away from President Biden’s initiative which, according to Beijing, was not meant for democracy but to advance the geo-strategic interests of Washington.

The FO spokesperson was asked whether the decision not to attend was because President Biden had chosen not to make any direct contact with Prime Minister Imran Khan even after nearly a year in office or if it was because China was not invited and Taiwan received an invite, and Pakistan wanted to show solidarity with Beijing.

Another query was whether Pakistan had an issue with the agenda of the summit, Geo News reported.

In a related development, Chinese Foreign Office spokesman, Lijian Zhao hailed Islamabad’s decision to decline Biden’s invite to the summit. "Pakistan declined to attend democracy summit. A real iron brother!" he tweeted while reproducing the FO statement.

On Wednesday, the FO had issued a statement announcing that it would not attend the Summit of Democracy but noted that the decline did not reflect on bilateral relations.

During the weekly briefing, the FO spokesperson was also asked to expand on the comment about the prime minister having said that Pakistan is not part of any bloc, to which he responded, "We are not part of any bloc, let me recall that this has been a consistent and longstanding policy of Pakistan, we have always maintained this principled opposition to the concept of bloc politics."

According to reports, Pakistan was also not happy with the format of the summit. Except for a few select leaders, who were to join Biden, others including Pakistan were asked to send pre-recorded statements for the summit of their respective leaders.

There was no debate or discussion planned and hence Islamabad felt it was appropriate to engage with the US on the subject at an opportune moment.

In another development, Pakistani students are continuing their protest against the Chinese government’s decision not to allow them to return to continue their studies. The FO spokesman said that they were engaged with China on this issue.

(With UNI inputs)