Islamabad, Nov 6 Pakistan on Friday said it will take a final decision on whether to participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) Civilisational Dialogue Forum in India later this month after consultations among relevant institutions.
Foreign Office Spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan confirmed at his weekly media briefing that Pakistan had received an invitation from India to attend the November 20-22 meeting to be held in New Delhi.
“A final decision on participation will be made by the country’s leadership following institutional consultations,” he said.
India has invited all member countries of the SCO, including Pakistan, to the forum being jointly organised by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
The invitation to Islamabad is significant as it is perhaps the first time New Delhi has invited a senior Pakistani minister to an event in India since the military confrontation between the two countries in May last year.
Pakistan’s National Heritage and Culture Minister Aurangzeb Khan Khichi is learnt to have been invited to attend the meeting.
India had announced on October 28 that invitations had been extended to all SCO members in keeping with established practice.
SCO is a Eurasian political, economic, and security intergovernmental bloc comprising India, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and Belarus.
The invitation to Pakistan comes against the backdrop of strained bilateral ties following the April 22, 2025, Pahalgam terror attack, which killed 26 people, and India’s subsequent launch of Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
The military confrontation lasted four days and ended on May 10 following an understanding between the military officials of the two countries.
India has consistently raised the issue of cross-border terrorism at the SCO, maintaining that the grouping must adopt a united approach against terrorism and its financing, without double standards.
At the SCO summit in Bishkek in September, India called on member countries to work together to dismantle the entire ecosystem of terrorism.
(PTI News)
