Pakistan says it will skip US democracy summit amid turmoil

By MUNIR AHMED
Associated Press

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan says it will not participate in this week’s U.S.-led Summit for Democracy, a move seen in part as an effort by the impoverished Islamic nation to assuage longtime ally China, which was not invited. The Biden administration has invited 120 global leaders to the summit being held in Washington on Wednesday and Thursday. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry in a statement Tuesday thanked the United States and its co-hosts for the invitation. Pakistan also did not attend the 2021 — the first and only other Summit for Democracy — amid growing tension between the government of then-Prime Minister Imran Khan and the U.S.