India invites Pakistan minister to SCO culture forum at Purana Quila in Delhi
New Delhi has asked Pakistan's heritage and culture minister to a three-day SCO forum on shared civilisations, a rare opening amid frozen ties.
India has invited Pakistan to the first Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Civilisational Dialogue Forum, to be held in New Delhi from November 20 to 22. Diplomatic sources told The Pioneer that Pakistan's Minister for National Heritage and Culture, Aurungzeb Khan Khichi, is among those invited.
If the invitation is confirmed, it would be the first of its kind to a Pakistani minister since India launched Operation Sindoor, its strikes on terror infrastructure, in May 2025. Islamabad has not said whether Khichi or anyone else will attend.
The venue is Purana Quila, the 16th-century fort in the heart of the capital. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to open the event. Organisers expect representatives from more than 25 countries to take part in talks on cultural and civilisational exchange.
Modi first floated the idea at the SCO leaders' summit in Tianjin in 2025, and the grouping later adopted it. India's Ministry of Culture is running the forum together with the Ministry of External Affairs. Culture ministers from all 10 SCO member states have been invited, including those from Russia, China, Iran and Belarus. Officials from observer and dialogue partner countries are also on the list.
A Pakistani minister in Delhi would be a notable moment. The last such visit was in 2023, when Bilawal Bhutto came to Goa for the SCO foreign ministers' meeting. Relations have stayed strained since Operation Sindoor, which India launched after the Pahalgam terror attack and has called measured and non-escalatory.
Even so, New Delhi has kept talking to Islamabad through multilateral platforms. In September 2026, India's SCO National Coordinator Alok Dimri travelled to Islamabad for a preparatory meeting. Pakistan is due to take over the SCO presidency and host the leaders' summit in August 2027.
The invitation looks like a narrow step inside the SCO framework, not a thaw. Broader political differences remain, and the forum's guest list will show how far both sides are willing to separate culture from conflict.
Source: The Pioneer