Officials say the invitation is part of a multilateral event and does not signal any change in bilateral ties
New Delhi, October 28: India has invited all 10 members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), including Pakistan, to the bloc’s first Civilisational Dialogue Forum in Delhi from November 20 to 22, officials said on Tuesday.
Pakistan’s national heritage and culture minister, Aurangzeb Khan Khichi, is among those invited, according to sources. Officials stressed that the invitation is part of a multilateral initiative open to all SCO members and has no bearing on India-Pakistan relations. They said it should be seen in that wider context.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed the forum at the SCO summit in Tianjin last year. The event is being organised jointly by the culture and external affairs ministries. Pakistan last sent a delegation to India for an SCO event at the foreign ministers’ meeting in Goa in May 2023. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar visited Islamabad for an SCO meeting in October 2024, the first such visit by an Indian foreign minister in nine years.
The invitation comes nearly 18 months after Operation Sindoor, the four-day conflict that followed the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed. Between May 7 and 10, Indian forces struck nine terror camps in Pakistan and PoK and hit 13 Pakistani airbases and military sites.
India has not softened its stance on terrorism. At an SCO meeting in Dushanbe on October 20, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, speaking in the presence of Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, said there could be no justification or double standards in tackling terrorism.
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