India invites Pakistan, along with other SCO member countries for SCO Civilisational Dialogue in Delhi

India has invited Pakistan’s Minister for National Heritage and Culture, Aurangzeb Khan Khichi, to the first Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Civilisational Dialogue Forum, scheduled for 20-22 November in New Delhi.

Diplomatic sources said invitations have gone to culture ministers from all SCO member states, as well as representatives of dialogue partners and observers. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) has 10 full members: China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran and Belarus. Iran's culture minister has been invited for the gathering.

The Civilisational Dialogue Forum, jointly organised by India’s Ministry of Culture and Ministry of External Affairs, is expected to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the historic Purana Qila. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh formally announced the event on 20 October while addressing the SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. “India, at the end of this year, will host the first SCO Civilisational Dialogue Forum. We invite all SCO member countries to participate in it,” he said.

The initiative was proposed by PM Modi at the SCO leaders’ summit in Tianjin in 2025 and later endorsed by the grouping. It aims to promote people-to-people ties and highlight the shared heritage, art, literature and traditions of the region’s ancient civilisations.

If Mr Khichi attends, it would be the first visit by a Pakistani minister to India since then-Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto travelled to Goa for an SCO foreign ministers’ meeting in 2023, and the first since the military hostilities between the two countries in May 2025 following the Pahalgam terror attack. Following the terror attack, India launched its counter-terror operation, Operation Sindoor inside Pakistan, and Pakistan occupied Kashmir on terror camps.

The invitation comes as Pakistan holds the rotating SCO chairmanship for 2026-27, having taken over after the Bishkek summit in early September. In late September, India’s SCO National Coordinator, Alok Dimri, an Additional Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, attended the first meeting of national coordinators under Pakistan’s chairmanship in Islamabad. It was the most senior Indian official visit to Pakistan since the May conflict.

Pakistan is scheduled to host the SCO Heads of State summit in Islamabad in 2027. Islamabad has indicated it will extend invitations to all member leaders, including PM Modi, in line with organisational protocol. India has previously engaged in SCO events hosted by Pakistan, sending External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar to the heads of government meeting in Islamabad in 2024.

Despite deeply strained bilateral ties, both countries have continued to participate in SCO mechanisms.