Culture ministers from all 10 SCO member states have been invited to the three-day SCO forum in New Delhi
India invites Pakistan to SCO Forum: India will hold the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation(SCO)’s first Civilisational Dialogue Forum in New Delhi from November 20 to 22. India has invited all 10 member nations of the SCO’s including Pakistan. The forum aims to highlight shared cultural heritage, historical links and people-to-people ties among countries across the region.
India’s Ministry of Culture is organising the forum in coordination with the Ministry of External Affairs. Culture ministers from all 10 SCO member states have been invited to the three-day meeting. These include India, Pakistan, China, Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus. Representatives from SCO observer states and dialogue partners are also expected to attend.
Pakistan’s Minister for National Heritage and Culture, Aurangzeb Khan Khichi, is among those invited. However, Islamabad has not yet confirmed who will represent the country at the event. The invitation comes against the backdrop of strained relations following the May 2025 military confrontation between the two countries after the Pahalgam terror attack. Despite these tensions, India and Pakistan have continued to participate in multilateral engagements under the SCO framework.
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The initiative was proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the SCO Council of Heads of State summit in Tianjin, China, in September 2025, and was subsequently adopted. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh formally announced that India would host the forum during the SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on October 20, 2026.
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