Pashinian was among the leaders of more than 100 countries invited to the two-day “Summit for Democracy” which is designed to promote democratic governance around the world in the face of rising authoritarianism.
Opening the gathering on Thursday, Biden said global freedoms are under threat from autocrats seeking to expand power, export influence and justify repression. He called for renewed commitments to protect democracies against such threats.
The White House has billed the summit as a way for the United States and like-minded allies to collaborate against authoritarianism, corruption, and human rights abuses.
The summit has been sharply criticized by Armenia’s ally Russia, China as well as other countries such as NATO member Hungary that weren't invited. Ahead of the summit, the ambassadors to Washington from China and Russia wrote a joint essay in the conservative National Interest policy journal defending their own forms of government and accusing the United States of pursuing a “Cold War mentality” that will “stoke up ideological confrontation” in the world.
“We are committed to the consolidation of democracy in Armenia through strengthening democratic institutions,” Pashinian said in his speech at the summit.
“In our bid to consolidate our democracy, we are facing multiple challenges. The biggest challenge for us comes in the form of military threats to our security,” he added in a thinly veiled reference to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Pashinian also claimed that Armenians twice “chose democracy over authoritarianism” when they brought him to power in 2018 and reelected his party in snap general elections held in June this year.
Armenia’s leading opposition groups challenged the official results of those elections in court. They regularly accuse Pashinian of ordering law-enforcement bodies to jail his political opponents on trumped-up charges, heightening government pressure on courts and trying to stifle dissent with controversial legislation. Pashinian and his allies deny that.
There has also been controversy about the list of invitees to the democracy summit. Brazil's right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro was invited, while the leader of NATO member Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was shunned.