India has invited Pakistan to attend the SCO Civilisational Dialogue Forum in New Delhi after the military conflict between the two countries in May 2025. The three-day event will take place from 20 to 22 November 2026.
According to media reports based on diplomatic sources, Pakistan’s Minister for National Heritage and Culture Aurangzeb Khan Khichi has been invited to participate in the inaugural forum. But Pakistan has not yet announced whether the minister or a representative from another country will attend.
The invitation comes nearly 18 months after Operation Sindoor, which India launched on May 7, 2025, following the deadly terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, on April 22, 2025. The attack killed 26 people and caused a serious deterioration in relations between New Delhi and Islamabad.
India Invites All SCO Member Countries
India has extended invitations to all 10 member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation for the Civilisational Dialogue Forum. These countries are India, Pakistan, China, Russia, Iran, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
So the event aims to promote cultural exchange and people-to-people ties and promote cooperation in heritage, education, literature and traditional knowledge.
The forum is organised jointly by India's Ministry of Culture and Ministry of External Affairs. New Delhi will host representatives from member states, observer states and dialogue partners.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed the Civilisational Dialogue Forum at the SCO leaders' summit in Tianjin, China, in September 2025. The initiative was then adopted by the grouping as a means of promoting cultural understanding among the participating countries.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh formally announced India's plan to host the forum during the SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on October 20, 2026.
Why the Invitation Matters
The invitation is significant because India and Pakistan continue to have limited relations in the face of continuing disputes on terrorism and security.
The last visit by a Pakistani foreign minister to India took place in May 2023 in which Bilawal Bhutto Zardari attended the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers meeting in Goa.
If Aurangzeb Khan Khichi attends the upcoming forum, it would be the first visit of a Pakistani minister to India since that meeting and the first such ministerial visit since Operation Sindoor.
But the invitation should be seen within the context of the SCO’s multilateral framework. Inviting Pakistan into the organization does not automatically mean there will be a general improvement in bilateral relations or a return of formal bilateral dialogue.
India has continued to participate in SCO activities despite tension with Pakistan. In September 2026, India's SCO National Coordinator, Alok Dimri, took an Indian delegation to Islamabad for a meeting related to the organisation's work.
SCO's Regional Role
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation promotes regional cooperation between countries in Asia and Eurasia. It covers security, economic cooperation, connectivity and cultural exchanges.
Pakistan holds the rotating chairmanship of the SCO for the 2026-27 term and is expected to host the next meeting of heads of state in Islamabad in August 2027.
India’s upcoming Civilisational Dialogue Forum is going to bring cultural cooperation into focus and provide member countries with the opportunity to take part in a common multilateral event.
Whether Pakistan accepts the invitation remains to be seen. Its decision, along with the level of representation it chooses, will determine the extent of its participation in the November gathering.
For now, the invitation represents a new point of contact between the two countries through an international organisation even as larger bilateral challenges remain unresolved.
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