• Visit will be first by Pakistani federal minister to India since May 2023
• India confirms invitations to members for inaugural dialogue
• Pakistan to host SCO summit in Islamabad in August next year
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Saturday nominated Climate Change Minister Musadik Malik to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Civilisational Dialogue in New Delhi, marking what would be the first visit by a Pakistani federal minister to India since 2023, amid strained bilateral relations following last year’s military conflict.
The Foreign Office said the government had nominated Dr Musadik Masood Malik, federal minister for climate change and environmental coordination, to represent Pakistan at the dialogue scheduled to be held from Nov 20 to 22.
The meeting will bring together representatives of SCO member states to exchange views on civilisational dialogue and cultural understanding, the Foreign Office said.
The forum was proposed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the SCO Council of Heads of State summit in Tianjin, China, in September 2025.
India subsequently announced that it would host the inaugural meeting and invited all member states, including Pakistan.
At a press briefing on Friday, Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal confirmed that invitations had been extended to SCO member states and said New Delhi looked forward to hosting the gathering.
Recent high-level engagements between Pakistan and India have largely taken place under the SCO framework.
In May 2023, then foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari visited Goa to attend a meeting of the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers, becoming the first senior Pakistani official to visit India in about 12 years.
Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar visited Islamabad in Oct 2024 for an SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting, marking the first visit by an Indian foreign minister in nearly a decade.
Neither visit featured formal bilateral talks.
More recently, India’s SCO National Coordinator Alok Dimri visited Islamabad in late September for a preparatory meeting ahead of the next SCO Council of Heads of State summit.
“This is my first time on Pakistani soil; these SCO-related programmes will continue throughout the year and culminate in the Islamabad summit,” the Indian official told PTV News at the time.
Pakistan has assumed the rotating chairmanship of the SCO Council of Heads of State for the 2026-27 term and is scheduled to host the organisation’s summit in Islamabad in August 2027.
Relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbours have remained strained, particularly since the four-day military conflict in May 2025, with official engagement largely confined to multilateral forums.
The Foreign Office reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to maintaining dialogue through the regional organisation.
“The Government of Pakistan remains committed to promoting dialogue among civilisations and fostering people-to-people contacts within the SCO framework in a spirit of mutual respect,” it said.
Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2026
