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India Invites Pakistan to SCO Summit in New DelhiWorld
Pakistan has received India’s invitation to the SCO Civilisational Dialogue Forum in New Delhi from November 20 to 22, the Foreign Office confirmed on Friday.
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Islamabad: Pakistan has received an invitation from India to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in New Delhi, the Foreign Office confirmed on Friday, saying a decision on participation will be taken by the country’s leadership after consultations.
The Foreign Office spokesperson confirmed at the weekly briefing in Islamabad that the summit, the SCO Civilisational Dialogue Forum, will be held in the Indian capital from November 20 to 22. He said the decision on Pakistan’s participation would follow institutional consultations and the completion of established procedures.
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India formally invited all ten SCO member states to the forum on October 28. The event is being organised jointly by India’s Ministry of External Affairs and its Ministry of Culture, and aims to deepen cultural engagement, encourage people-to-people contact and promote greater mutual understanding among member countries.
According to reports, Pakistan’s Minister for National Heritage and Culture, Aurangzeb Khan Khichi, has been invited to attend the forum. If Pakistan accepts, it would be one of the highest-level Pakistani visits to India since the confrontation between the two countries in May 2025, when India launched Operation Sindoor following the Pahalgam attack.
First formal outreach since May 2025
The invitation has drawn attention because it marks the first formal outreach from New Delhi to Islamabad since the May 2025 confrontation. Indian officials have clarified, however, that all ten SCO member states received invitations and that the arrangement is a multilateral initiative which should not be confused with India-Pakistan bilateral relations.
The concept of the forum was put forward by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the SCO summit in Tianjin in 2025 and subsequently endorsed by the organisation. The forum was announced by Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh during the SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on October 20.
Pakistan currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the SCO Council of Heads of State for the 2026-27 term, having assumed the position on September 1 following the summit in Bishkek. Pakistan is scheduled to host the SCO summit in Islamabad in 2027.
Kartarpur Corridor and Sikh pilgrims
At the same briefing, the Foreign Office spokesperson said Pakistan had not imposed any visa restrictions on Indian citizens and had issued visas to an additional 4,000 Sikh pilgrims during the first six months of 2026. In 2025, Pakistan granted 9,318 visas to Indian pilgrims, while 9,000 Sikh and 248 Hindu pilgrims visited the country.
He said India had kept pilgrim movement through the Kartarpur Corridor suspended since May 2025, adding that Pakistan was ready to welcome and facilitate Sikh pilgrims as soon as India lifted the restrictions. Islamabad was also looking forward to receiving Sikh pilgrims for celebrations marking the 557th birth anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak Dev Ji.
The spokesperson also discussed Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts to promote regional stability, particularly its role in facilitating dialogue between Iran and the United States. He said Pakistan had acted as a sincere mediator in the Iran-US dispute, bringing two countries that had not held direct talks for 47 years to the negotiating table under one roof, and that Pakistan would continue its efforts to promote peace and stability in the region.
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