Pakistan named Climate Change Minister Musadik Masood Malik to represent it at the SCO Civilisational Dialogue Forum in New Delhi from November 20 to 22. This visit marks the first time a Pakistani minister traveled to India in over three years, showing how both nations keep multilateral commitments despite frozen ties.
Pakistan on Saturday named Climate Change Minister Musadik Masood Malik to represent it at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Civilisational Dialogue Forum in New Delhi later this month. This will mark the first visit by a Pakistani minister to India since Operation Sindoor and in over three years. New Delhi is hosting the inaugural SCO Civilisational Dialogue Forum from November 20 to 22, at the historic Purana Qila. While India last hosted the annual SCO Heads of State Summit virtually in 2023, this upcoming ministerial-level gathering is the major SCO event taking place in the Indian capital.
India had invited Pakistan's Minister for National Heritage and Culture, Aurangzeb Khan Khichi, to the forum, which will be held from November 20 to 22. The invitation was the first New Delhi has extended to a Pakistani minister since Operation Sindoor, which the government has said remains ongoing. Recent diplomatic engagements between India and Pakistan under the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) highlight a strict separation between frozen bilateral relations and multilateral institutional commitments, say experts. Key details to consider ahead of the summit: -Pakistan's Climate Minister, Musadik Masood Malik, is scheduled to visit New Delhi from November 20 to 22, 2026.
Malik's trip marks the first visit by a Pakistani minister to India in over three years. -The forum is an Indian initiative. Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed it at the SCO summit in Tianjin in September last year and it was subsequently included in the declaration adopted at this year's summit in Bishkek. More than 25 countries, including SCO members and dialogue partners, are expected to attend. -The SCO, however, remains one of the few platforms where the two sides continue to engage. Pakistan assumed the grouping's rotating chairmanship for 2026-27 at the Bishkek summit on September 1 and will host the leaders' summit in Islamabad in August 2027. -The visit is for the first-ever SCO Civilisational Dialogue Forum, an initiative proposed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the 2025 Tianjin summit to foster heritage, culture, and people-to-people exchanges.
India extended invitations to all 10 SCO member states -- as well as dialogue partners and observers -- following standard multilateral procedure rather than making a bilateral overture. -Both New Delhi and Islamabad have emphasized that the engagement is strictly multilateral. India maintains that normal bilateral dialogue remains frozen until cross-border terrorism stops. -Following the Bishkek Summit in late August 2026, Pakistan assumed the rotating presidency of the SCO for the 2026-27 term, which will culminate in the Heads of State Summit in August 2027. -In late September 2026, Indian diplomat Alok Dimri (Additional Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs) traveled to Islamabad for the SCO Council of National Coordinators meeting. -Dimri's September trip was the first official visit by an Indian delegation to Pakistan following Operation Sindoor in 2025.
While India has boycotted South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summits hosted by Pakistan since 2016, analysts note that New Delhi actively participates in SCO events in Pakistan to protect its strategic interests in Eurasia and balance regional dynamics alongside China, Russia, and Iran.