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Why it matters
If Pakistan's culture minister attends, he would be the first Pakistani minister hosted by India since 2023 and since the four-day conflict of May 2025, The Hindu reported. It also shows how India and Pakistan keep meeting inside the SCO while most other contact stays frozen, a year before Pakistan hosts the SCO leaders' summit to which Modi has been invited.
India has invited Pakistan’s culture minister, Aurangzeb Khan Khichi, to New Delhi in November for an SCO dialogue on civilisations, formally the first Civilisational Dialogue Forum of the 10-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), according to a report in The Hindu and one by Pakistan’s Samaa TV. Both reports rest on unnamed officials, on the Indian and the Pakistani side respectively. Pakistan had not said who would lead its delegation, The Hindu reported on 27 October 2026.
If Khichi does travel, he would be the first Pakistani minister India has hosted since Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari came to Goa for an SCO foreign ministers’ meeting in May 2023, and the first since the four days of fighting between the two countries in May 2025, The Hindu reported.
What the SCO dialogue forum at Purana Qila is
The SCO’s 10 members are China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Iran, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The SCO dialogue on civilisations was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposal. The Hindu said he put it forward at the Tianjin summit last year and the SCO Council adopted it. Alok Dimri, India’s SCO national coordinator, told the news agency ANI (Asian News International) on 30 September that leaders agreed at the Bishkek summit (31 August to 1 September 2026) to hold it, and the Prime Minister’s Office counts the forum among the initiatives India led or supported in the Bishkek Declaration, ANI reported.
According to The Hindu, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) are organising the forum, and Modi is due to open it at Purana Qila, the 16th-century Old Fort in Delhi that the paper says was built by Emperor Humayun. Culture ministers of all 10 members have been invited, along with 15 countries that are SCO dialogue partners or observers.
Each country can send its culture minister and up to four others, such as officials, scholars or heritage experts, the organisers said, as quoted by The Hindu. The programme has four themed sessions: monastic trails and religious and philosophical traditions; art and architecture; language, literature, scripts and manuscripts; and living cultural traditions.
When the SCO dialogue is held: the reports differ
The reports do not agree on the exact dates or even on what to call the meeting. No statement from the MEA or the Ministry of Culture on the invitation was found in the material NewsPlainly checked, so each version is set out below with its source.
| Report | Date published | What it calls the event | Dates given |
|---|---|---|---|
| ANI, quoting Alok Dimri | 30 September 2026 | SCO Civilisation Dialogue Forum | 20 November |
| Samaa TV, citing Pakistan foreign ministry sources | 21 October 2026 | SCO Council of Ministers of Culture meeting | 20 and 21 November |
| The Hindu, citing sources | 27 October 2026 | Civilisational Dialogue Forum | 20 to 22 November |
Both appear to describe the same meeting: Samaa names the same minister and city, and The Hindu says each delegation is led by a culture minister. What the reports leave unclear is whether it runs for one, two or three days.
Pakistan’s response so far
Samaa TV reported on 21 October that Pakistan’s government was reviewing the invitation and would decide after internal consultations. Six days later, The Hindu said, citing diplomatic sources, that Pakistan had still not confirmed which Pakistan minister or official would head its team for the SCO dialogue. The Hindu gives Khichi’s title as Minister for National Heritage and Culture.
On whether Modi will go to Pakistan for the SCO summit there in August 2027, the MEA has stayed noncommittal. Asked by The Hindu on 27 August, MEA Secretary (West) Sibi George said India “deals with SCO as an entity”, and that the level of India’s participation would be decided “at the appropriate time”.
India and Pakistan at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation since 2023
Outside the SCO, India has stayed away from South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) meetings in Islamabad since 2016, The Hindu noted. Inside the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, contact has continued at several levels. NewsPlainly has put the reported meetings in order:
- 4 and 5 May 2023: Pakistan’s then foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari attends the SCO foreign ministers’ meeting in Goa, hosted by S. Jaishankar (Samaa TV, The Hindu).
- 2023: Modi hosts that year’s SCO leaders’ summit online rather than in person (The Hindu).
- 15 and 16 October 2024: External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar goes to Islamabad for the SCO Heads of Government meeting, the first visit to Pakistan by an Indian foreign minister in nearly nine years, The Hindu reported at the time.
- May 2025: India and Pakistan fight a four-day conflict (The Hindu).
- Mid-September 2026: India’s chargé d’affaires in Pakistan, Satyapal Pandey, attends an SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) meeting in Islamabad, with no delegation from Delhi (The Hindu).
- 28 to 30 September 2026: Alok Dimri, a Joint Secretary in the MEA, leads India’s team to the SCO national coordinators’ meeting in Islamabad, the first such official Indian visit since Operation Sindoor in 2025, according to The Hindu. Indian officials said the meeting was multilateral and carried no special meaning for bilateral ties.
- 20 October 2026: At the SCO Heads of Government meeting in Dushanbe, with Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar present, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh says there can be “no justification for terrorism” and invites member states to the Delhi forum (The Hindu).
- 20 November 2026 onwards: The SCO dialogue forum at Purana Qila, to which Khichi has been invited, according to the reports above.
- August 2027: Pakistan hosts the SCO leaders’ summit, its foreign ministry said in a statement reported by The Hindu.
For more on the recent exchanges, see NewsPlainly’s report on Jaishankar’s 25 October remarks on terrorism as statecraft.
Why a Pakistan minister in Delhi is being watched
Indian officials have framed contact inside the SCO as multilateral business. When Dimri went to Islamabad in September, they said the meeting carried no particular significance for bilateral ties, The Hindu reported. A Pakistani minister in Delhi would still be a first since the 2025 fighting, The Hindu noted, and the invitation comes about a month after Jaishankar and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif traded allegations in their speeches at the UN General Assembly in September.
Pakistan holds the SCO chair for 2026-27 and will host the leaders’ summit in August 2027, to which Modi has been invited. The MEA had declined to say whether he would travel but had not ruled it out, The Hindu reported on 29 September.
Several points are still open, based on the reports read up to 6.15 pm IST on 27 October. The reports read carry no decision from Pakistan. No announcement by either Indian ministry of the forum’s final dates was found. And it is not known who will speak for Pakistan if Khichi does not go.
Frequently asked questions
What is the SCO Civilisational Dialogue Forum?
A new SCO meeting proposed by Narendra Modi in which culture ministers of member and partner countries discuss shared heritage. The first is to be held in New Delhi in November 2026, with four themed sessions on religion and philosophy, art and architecture, languages and manuscripts, and living traditions.
Has Pakistan accepted India's invitation to the SCO forum?
Not in the reports read. Samaa TV said on 21 October that Pakistan was reviewing the invitation, and The Hindu said on 27 October that Pakistan had not confirmed who would lead its delegation.
When did a Pakistani minister last visit India?
Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, then Pakistan's foreign minister, came to Goa on 4 and 5 May 2023 for the SCO foreign ministers' meeting, according to Samaa TV and The Hindu.
Where will the SCO forum in Delhi be held?
At Purana Qila, the Old Fort in Delhi, and Prime Minister Modi is due to inaugurate it, The Hindu reported.