ISLAMABAD (The Thursday Times) — India has invited Pakistan’s Minister for National Heritage and Culture, Aurangzeb Khan Khichi, to a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in New Delhi next month, the first such invitation to a senior Pakistani minister since the two countries fought a four-day conflict in May 2025, The Indian Express reported on Tuesday.
Khichi has been invited to the SCO Civilisational Dialogue Forum in New Delhi on November 20 and 21, the newspaper said, citing sources. As the host, India is obliged to invite representatives of all SCO member states. It was not immediately clear whether Khichi would attend.
The forum was first proposed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the SCO summit in Tianjin in September 2025. It is meant to promote cultural ties and showcase the shared heritage, art and literature of the bloc’s member states, which include Pakistan, India, China, Russia, Iran, Belarus and four Central Asian countries.
Frozen ties
India last hosted a senior Pakistani minister in May 2023, when Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, then foreign minister, travelled to Goa for a meeting of SCO foreign ministers. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar visited Islamabad in October 2024 for the SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting hosted by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
New Delhi has kept bilateral ties with Islamabad largely frozen for a decade but has had to engage with Pakistan through the SCO. Last month Alok Dimri, India’s national coordinator for the grouping, led an Indian delegation to an SCO meeting in Islamabad, the first Indian presence at an SCO event in Pakistan in almost two years, and told the state broadcaster PTV that the SCO had “come to the neighbourhood”. Pakistan is due to host the summit of SCO leaders next year.
