OREANDA-NEWS. The United States invited 110 countries and territories to the upcoming Democracy Summit in December, but did not include countries such as Russia and China. The list is published on the website of the US Department of State.

Among the invited countries is Taiwan, which, according to the official position of the PRC, is one of China's provinces. The US also invited representatives of Kosovo and non-recognising Serbia at the same time. Of the EU countries, only Hungary is not on the list.

In addition, according to the document, Turkey, a NATO ally of the United States, has not received an invitation to the summit. The only invited Middle Eastern countries are Israel and Iraq.

US President Joe Biden announced the idea of a "Summit for Democracy" back in 2019, when he was the Democratic Party's candidate for the US presidential nomination. This year it will be held as a video conference from 9 to 10 December. It will be attended by business people, civic associations and charities, in addition to state representatives. "The summit will focus on the challenges and opportunities facing democracies and provide a platform for leaders to announce both individual and collective commitments, reforms and initiatives to protect democracy and human rights at home and abroad,"- the State Department said in a statement.

Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the US-organised summit aims to "divide people, countries into democratic and non-democratic". "This is explained by the fact that the Americans want to ensure the masses as much as possible, to show the massiveness of their movement, led by Washington. It will be fun to see who exactly was invited and in what capacity,"- the minister said.