New Delhi: India has invited Pakistan’s Minister for National Heritage and Culture, Aurangzeb Khan Khichi, to attend the first Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Civilisational Dialogue Forum in New Delhi from November 20 to 22.
Diplomatic sources said all 10 SCO member states have been invited to the forum. The invitation marks the first to a senior Pakistani minister since Operation Sindoor, launched in May 2025 following the Pahalgam terror attack.
Organised jointly by the Ministries of External Affairs and Culture, the forum aims to promote cultural exchanges, preserve shared heritage and strengthen people-to-people ties.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh announced the initiative at the SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on October 20.
Pakistan has acknowledged receiving the invitation but has yet to confirm whether Khichi will attend or Islamabad will send another representative.
If Khichi visits India, it would mark the first visit by a senior Pakistani minister since then-Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari attended the SCO foreign ministers’ meeting in Goa in May 2023.
India has maintained that the invitation is part of its responsibilities as host of a multilateral SCO event and does not indicate a change in its bilateral position toward Pakistan.
At the Dushanbe meeting, Singh also called for collective action against terrorism, stressing that there should be no double standards in dealing with those who support or shelter terrorists.
