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The Biden administration has again failed to invite Azerbaijan and Türkiye to the second Summit for Democracy, scheduled for March 30, whereas Armenia, which had retained Azerbaijani land under occupation for nearly 30 years contrary to universally-cherished principles and is still exacerbating tension in the region, is among the invitees.
The criteria, applied by the Biden administration to the selectees, are absolutely ill-defined and amorphous. The reasons for the failure to invite Azerbaijan and Türkiye to the summit should be sought in the context of these states’ independent foreign policies serving primarily their national interests and benefiting others.
Azerbaijan has been playing a pivotal role in supplying Europe with energy resources and its importance has grown in the wake of the Russian war in Ukraine, and Türkiye as a venue for many crucial oil and gas pipelines augmented endeavors both economically, politically and has remained conducive in secure transit to eastern and western European nations.
Baku’s role in this end has been repeatedly credited by various US administrations and several of them have even played a huge role in implementing mega gas and oil projects. However, aggressor Armenia’s negative role in the South Caucasus and close relations with the theocratic Iran regime are turned a blind eye and its misdeeds are encouraged and promoted as a nation fighting for democratic values.
Alas, this is yet another miscalculation of the Biden administration as this initiative was born during his term of office.
Notwithstanding the reasons why Azerbaijan and Türkiye were not invited to the Democracy Summit, it is crucial for the international community to engage with all countries in the region. Without applying internationally-binding principles and guarantees as well as respect for basic principles, one cannot ensure peace, order, economic development, prosperity, and good-neighborly relations in the South Caucasus. The need for promoting greater regional stability and democratic values in the region is the most important now than it was two years ago since justice has now been served by Azerbaijan despite the collective indifference of the world.
It is deeply disturbing to observe the implementation of the US foreign policy in a very distorted and biased fashion by the Biden-Harris Administration. The Republic of Azerbaijan embodies the essential components of a thriving democratic society, US pundit Peter Tase told Azernews in a comment.
The decision of the US State Department to invite autocratic regimes that encourage disruption in the Trans-Atlantic alliance that embodies a plethora of economic and industrial sectors for the development of the United States and Europe, above all autocratic regimes such as the one in Yerevan, are regularly engaged and conspire with America’s enemies abroad.
It is blatantly implausible to observe that Washington has failed to invite the governments of Türkiye and Azerbaijan to attend the Summit for Democracy, even though tremendous progress has been made in bolstering democratic institutions and fostering greater transparency in the administration of elections in Baku and Ankara, the pundit said.
The geopolitical proclivity of the Biden-Harris Administration is deeply puzzling and exposes a vulnerable US foreign policy that does not reflect the political and military interests of Washington.
“It is shocking to observe that Biden’s second Summit for Democracy, scheduled for March 28-30, 2023, will be co-hosted with the Government of Zambia - an African country that is widely known to have rampant levels of corruption and political killings. In 2021, Zambia experienced violent tensions, protests, and police forces used live bullets against unarmed citizens. Zambian authorities continue to crack down on the right to freedom of expression and suppress human rights. Zambia is also the most important economic ally of America’s largest strategic competitor in Eastern Asia,” Peter Tase said.
Another country that is invited by the Biden-Harris Administration is Honduras; a nation that is engulfed in a great crisis of human trafficking and drug trafficking operations with various Cartels in the US-Mexico border area. Honduras has the first female president, Xiomara Castro, who is allegedly as corrupt as her predecessor Juan Orlando Hernandez. In 2019, it was revealed that he was a co-conspirator in a drug trafficking and money laundering case, and $1.5m in drug proceeds was used to help elect him in 2013. Incumbent President Castro was propelled politically by America’s largest geopolitical rival in Latin America.
It is wrong to associate Azerbaijan's non-invitation with democracy as there are more serious issues here. One of them is that Azerbaijan regained occupied lands by force and without the approval of the west, which angered pro-Armenian lobby groups with deep ties with all US administrations. Another reason should be sought in years-long black PR campaigns against Azerbaijan and Turkiye in the West by the Armenian Diaspora groups and their patrons driven by their own interests in attacking Baku and Ankara.
Third, Azerbaijan does not want to undermine relations with the mighty northern neighbor despite ongoing pressure to this end as it realizes that being a neighbor with Russia stands for existing in the same geography forever and no government in Azerbaijan has the right to act under alien diktat to satisfy their demands.
Democracy is never exported but arises from the internal demand of a country. Democracy is an important step taken by individual countries to join the overall development of the world. Azerbaijan has been also taking corresponding steps in this direction and the negative impact of Armenia's 30-year-long occupation of its lands cannot and should be disregarded since democracy is born and thrives in the atmosphere far away from destruction, occupation, and killing of innocent people. No government has ever managed to install democracy side by side with millions of refugees and IDPs and Azerbaijan had been through them and is still coping with hardships.