New Delhi: India has invited all Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) members, dialogue partners and one observer to the SCO Civilisational Dialogue Forum set to be held in New Delhi in November, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Wednesday.
The remarks from MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal came at a bi-weekly media briefing in New Delhi on Wednesday.
When asked whether India has invited Pakistan for the SCO Civilisational Dialogue Forum, Jaiswal said, “As per established practice, we have invited all SCO members. We have also invited dialogue partners and one observer to the SCO. They have been invited for the forum, Civilisational Dialogue Forum meeting, which will be held in New Delhi on 20th to 22nd of November, 2026.”
The SCO comprises 10 member states – Belarus, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It has 15 dialogue partners -Azerbaijan, Armenia, Bahrain, Egypt, Cambodia, Qatar, Kuwait, Laos, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Sri Lanka and two observer states: Afghanistan and Mongolia.
Earlier, diplomatic sources confirmed that India, which is hosting the SCO’s first Civilisational Dialogue Forum in New Delhi, has also invited Pakistan’s Minister for National Heritage and Culture, Aurungzeb Khan Khichi, for the event.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to inaugurate the three-day forum, which will bring together representatives from more than 25 countries at Purana Quila, the historic 16th-century fort in the national capital.
The Ministry of Culture is partnering with the Ministry of External Affairs to organise the event. The choice of Purana Quila as the venue underscores India’s emphasis on highlighting its historical and civilisational continuum while hosting a major multilateral cultural event.
The gathering is expected to feature discussions on civilisational linkages, cultural diplomacy and collaborative initiatives in the fields of heritage, education and traditional knowledge systems.
The initiative was proposed by Prime Minister Modi at the SCO leaders’ summit in Tianjin in 2025 and was subsequently adopted by the grouping.
Pakistan has yet to confirm who will represent it at the forum. If Minister Khichi attends, it would mark the first visit by a Pakistani minister to India since the SCO Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Goa in 2023, which was attended by Pakistan’s then Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto.
Despite strained bilateral relations, India has continued to engage with Pakistan within the SCO framework. In September 2026, India sent its SCO National Coordinator Alok Dimri to Islamabad for a meeting ahead of Pakistan’s presidency of the grouping and the planned SCO leaders’ summit scheduled for August 2027.
(IANS)
