Non-participation in Virtual Summit: Pakistan misses opportunity to improve relations with US?
Pakistan missed a great opportunity. Attendance by the United States after this invitation would be tantamount to recognizing Pakistan as a democratic government. According to some experts, Pakistan needs to broaden its foreign policy rather than shrink it, given the changing situation in the region and especially with the advent of Taliban rule in Afghanistan.
A few days ago, the United States invited Pakistan to a virtual summit on democracy. The two-day summit began on December 9, and today, December 10, was its last day. Pakistan refused to attend the summit and expressed its desire to sit with the United States at another time in the future.
It should be noted that 110 countries were invited to this virtual summit by US President Joe Biden, which included several major Western countries as well as India and Pakistan. A few other countries, including China, Russia and Bangladesh, were not invited to the summit. According to some experts, Pakistan took this decision under pressure from China which was not wise.
'Iron Brother'
After Pakistan's refusal to attend the US summit, Chinese Foreign Office spokesman Lijian Thao expressed happiness in a tweet, calling Pakistan "Iron Brother" for rejecting the US invitation.
According to reports from the summit, the United States invited Taiwan instead of Beijing to represent China, which China protested. However, according to experts, for Pakistan to attend the summit would be tantamount to straining relations with China, which Pakistan did not want.
Former Foreign Secretary of Pakistan Aizaz Chaudhry said, “Pakistan's decision is absolutely correct and based on good intentions. Why should Pakistan's relations with the United States be viewed in the context of China? One of the things that Pakistan is concerned about is whether the countries participating in this summit really adhere to democratic values.
US-China Cold War and Pakistan's foreign policy
Prime Minister Imran Khan has said in various forums about the growing 'Cold War' between the US and China in recent days that Pakistan will not be part of any Cold War bloc.
Prime Minister Imran Khan said in a conclave held in Islamabad a day ago that "this will create more constituencies around the world and Pakistan is trying not to be a part of any constituency."
'Pakistan made a mistake by refusing to attend the summit'
According to Farhan Siddiqui, director of Quaid-e-Azam University's School of Politics and International Relations, "Pakistan has made a mistake by not going."
"Pakistan missed a great opportunity," he said. Attendance by the United States after this invitation would be tantamount to recognizing Pakistan as a democratic government.
Farhan Siddiqui's background is that Pakistan has been repeatedly called a 'hybrid regime' internationally. Which simply means that Pakistan has a coalition government based on democracy and dictatorship. And then, when the time came for this government to be recognized as a democracy, it was let go.
Farhan Siddiqui says that the United States considers China a dictatorship and therefore did not want to invite it which could create more problems for Pakistan at the external level.
Rising diplomatic standoff between Pakistan and US
Experts, on the other hand, attribute the cold snap in US-Pakistan relations to a number of important events this year. On the one hand, US President Joseph Biden's failure to call Prime Minister Imran Khan himself, the introduction of a bill in the US Senate to support the Taliban against Pakistan, and the subsequent withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan to establish a Taliban government there and in the region. Pakistan's insistence on the US presence that "Pakistan should not be left alone in the region" is one of the few incidents.
If we go back a little in the past, in September this year, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, speaking at the US Forum Council on Foreign Relations, said: Move your relationship away from terrorism to a broader goal.
A month later, US diplomat and Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, speaking at a ceremony in Mumbai before her arrival in Pakistan, apparently said bluntly, "The United States does not see a broad-based relationship with Pakistan." This statement further exposed the atmosphere of mistrust between the two countries.
Farhan Siddiqui says, “President Biden's call to Imran Khan gives the impression that Pakistan is still important in the eyes of the United States and that relations with Pakistan can be established in addition to eradicating terrorism. But the problem is that now that the United States was taking a step forward, Pakistan should have accepted it as an important step in foreign policy.
He said that on the one hand, the decision not to attend the US summit was being considered as an independent decision, but the Chinese spokesperson was happy to give the impression that Pakistan had taken this decision under some pressure.