New Delhi, Oct 28 India has invited all the member nations of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), including Pakistan, for the grouping’s Civilisational Dialogue Forum to be held in the national capital next month, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Wednesday.
It is perhaps for the first time that New Delhi extended an invitation to a senior minister from Pakistan to attend an event in India after last year’s May 7-10 military hostilities following the Operation Sindoor.
“According to established practice, we have invited all SCO members. We also invited dialogue partners and one observer to the SCO Civilisational Dialogue Forum meeting which will be held in New Delhi from November 20 to 22,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
He was responding to a question on whether a Pakistani minister was invited to the Civilisational Dialogue Forum meeting.
It is learnt that Pakistan’s National Heritage and Culture Minister Aurangzeb Khan Khichi has been invited to the meeting.
The SCO Civilisational Dialogue Forum is being jointly organised by the Ministry of Culture and the MEA.
Following the four-day military hostilities, India has been putting pressure on cross-border terrorism, maintaining that Pakistan continues to provide shelter to various terror groups as an instrument of policy.
Launched in response to the Pahalgam terror attack, Operation Sindoor saw India carry out precision air strikes on nine terror infrastructures including the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) headquarters at Bahawalpur, the Lashkar-e-Taiba’s base at Muridke, in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.
It marked the most daring cross-border military action by India the country since the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.
Following the Indian action, Pakistan attempted to attack Indian military bases on May 8, 9 and 10.
The Pakistani attempts were strongly responded to by the Indian side by inflicting heavy damages to a number of key Pakistani military installations including air bases, air defence systems, command and control centres and radar sites.
The hostilities came to an end on evening of May 10 following talks between military officials of the two countries.
India has been flagging concerns over cross-border terrorism at the SCO as well.
In the SCO summit in Bishkek in September, India said the SCO must work unitedly to dismantle entire ecosystem of terrorism as well as its financing and there can’t be any room for double standards in combating the menace.
(PTI News)
