On December 9 and 10, US President Joe Biden will be hosting the Summit for Democracy conference, which he has invited leaders from 111 countries to, including the Prime Minister of Armenia. What is the principle of choosing these countries? The classification of the American Freedom House organization was taken as a basis. Let me remind you that the majority of the budget of this structure is formed through the grants of the American government. According to these criteria, 77 of the invited countries are free, 31, including Armenia, are partially free, and three are not free, but, according to the US government, have the opportunity for positive transformation. Even more, within the distinction there is another classification: liberal and “electoral” democracy. Accordingly, we belong to the second group, which probably means that our authorities, although elected in a fair way, do not show their ideals.
Russia and China, which Freedom House does not consider free, were not invited to the conference. The ambassadors of those two countries to the USA made a statement, the two main theses of which are: 1) There are different types of democracy, 2) there is no need to assume the role of a judge on this issue in the world. The controversy over the first thesis has long since shifted from the academic to the political-propaganda sphere, and in such cases it is very difficult to find out the truth. In the second question, the ambassadors, I think, are right. All superpowers have their problems but prefer to talk about someone else’s flaws.
But the decision to participate or not participate in the conference, I think, should be conditioned not by the strength of the arguments of the parties, but by purely pragmatic calculations. They should also include the fact that Russia and China consider it such an important issue that they have decided to address the conference at the ambassadorial level. The mindset of the current Armenian authorities, so to speak, does not allow them to understand what issues are sensitive to Russia (or any other country) and can make reckless statements, for example, about Russia’s proposals for a settlement in Karabakh. Regarding the conference, the position of our friendly countries should be taken into account, at least. But, on the other hand, if attending the conference brings any tangible results (apart from being among the 111 “excellent” countries), then definitely the decision must be positive.
Read also
Aram Abrahamyan
