Why India invited Pakistan to the SCO forum?
All 10 member countries of the organization have been invited to the first Civilizational Dialogue Forum in New Delhi from November 20 to 22.
India has invited Pakistan to the first Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Civilizational Dialogue Forum, which will be held in New Delhi from November 20 to 22. India has extended the invitation to Pakistan's Minister for National Heritage and Culture, Aurangzeb Khan Khichi, to participate in the forum. If he attends, it will be the first visit by a Pakistani minister to India since May 2023. Observers have expressed surprise at India's initiative amid heightened tensions between the two countries following Operation Sindoor.
Besides Pakistan, all 10 member countries of the SCO have been invited to participate in the event. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh announced the hosting of the forum during a meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the organization in Dushanbe on October 20. He had invited member countries to take part in the forum on that occasion.
The meeting will last for three days and conclude on November 22. Representatives from India, Pakistan, China, Russia, Iran, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan will be present as member countries. India has been a full member of the SCO since 2017; Afghanistan and Mongolia are observers, and there are 15 dialogue partners in the organization.
The invitation comes at a time when India-Pakistan relations remain tense. Tensions between the two countries escalated after the Pahalgam attack in April 2025 and subsequently after India's Operation Sindoor in May 2025. If Khichi visits India, it will be the first visit by a senior Pakistani minister since May 2023, when then-Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari attended the SCO Foreign Ministers' meeting in Goa. The current invitation raises the possibility of bilateral talks resuming, but no party has commented on this yet.
Indo-Pacific affairs expert Derek J. Grossman told Navbharat Times that maintaining cordial relations with other SCO members is part of India's responsibility. According to him, there have been no bilateral discussions between India and Pakistan for several years. Under this argument, the invitation is related to India's conduct with member countries of the organization, rather than necessarily marking the beginning of bilateral talks.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi questioned this policy. In a statement published in Navbharat Times, she described inviting Pakistan for talks and cricket while also advocating for tough measures as hypocrisy.
In fact, according to the SCO Charter, inviting member countries to the organization's summits and ministerial meetings is the host's responsibility, and thus, inviting Pakistan should be seen as a necessity for India rather than a gesture of friendship. India has consistently accused Pakistan of harboring terrorism, and recently, Rajnath Singh emphasized the need for a unified stance against terrorism and to avoid double standards during the Council of Heads of Government Meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Dushanbe, where Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar was present.
Currently, Pakistan is holding the chairmanship of the SCO Council of Heads of State for 2026-27 since September 1, and while its attendance at the proposed meeting in India is not mandatory, if it rejects India's invitation, it could negatively impact its elevated diplomatic stature due to its mediation in the Iran-U.S. conflict. Meanwhile, a Pakistani minister's visit to India as a guest could pose challenges for the Bharatiya Janata Party's narrative, which continuously portrays Pakistan as an enemy state and criticizes previous Congress governments for allegedly not taking strong measures against Pakistan.