Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

Pakistan turned down the US' invitation to its so-called "democracy summit," which will be held on Thursday and Friday, becoming the latest to reject it after other countries like Russia voiced concerns over the meeting, describing it as "utterly hypocritical." 

Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued the statement on Wednesday saying that "we are thankful to the United States for inviting Pakistan for participation in the Summit for Democracy."

Without direct rejection, the statement reads: "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." 

The summit was widely criticized by Chinese observers for bringing new confrontations and dividing the world by ideology.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation also made a statement on December 1 regarding the "democracy summit," pointing out the chronic problems in the US and its allies, including freedom of speech, electoral rules, corruption and human rights. 

"The democratizing rhetoric coming from Washington is not only completely disconnected from reality but is also utterly hypocritical," given the media editorial policy controlled by the partisan and corporate elites, the weaknesses in the existing vote counting mechanism, the leading number of prisoners in the world and the legislatures defending the interests of their sponsors rather than the voters, read the statement.

Russia urged the US to first address their problems at home and overcome the deepening divisions in society on ethics, values, and the vision of the country's past and future.

"As humanity continues to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftereffects, the cooperation of all states on the basis of the principles of the UN Charter is needed now more than ever," said the statement from Russia's Foreign Ministry.

China's Foreign Ministry issued a report on Sunday detailing the abuses and malaises of democracy in the US. Experts said it was a "timely and to the point" move to crush the "halo" of the so-called "a beacon for democracy" ahead of the US sponsored summit for democracy that is being widely criticized for dividing the world by ideology.

China and Russia decried the US "democracy summit" as creating new "dividing lines" in a joint article last week, calling for past lessons to be remembered.