Pak announces minister Musadik Malik would attend SCO Civilisational Dialogue Forum in India

     Islamabad, Nov 14 (PTI) Pakistan on Saturday announced that Climate Change Minister Musadik Malik would participate in the SCO Civilisational Dialogue Forum hosted by India at the historic Purana Qila in Delhi later this month.

     The development comes a day after Union Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said that he was "hopeful" that Pakistan will also attend the event to be held here from November 20-22.

     During an interaction with the press in New Delhi ahead of the event, the Union minister on Friday had announced that China, Kazakhstan, Iran, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are among 15 countries that have confirmed participation in the SCO Civilisational Dialogue Forum.

     India had announced on October 28 that invitations had been extended to all SCO members, including Pakistan, in keeping with established practice.

     It was perhaps for the first time that New Delhi extended an invitation to a Pakistani minister to attend an event in India after last year's May 7-10 military hostilities following Operation Sindoor.

     Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the inaugural session of the SCO on November 20.

     According to a statement by the Pakistan Foreign Office, the event would bring representatives from SCO member states to discuss issues related to civilisational dialogue and cultural understanding.

     “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,” the statement said.

     Musadik Malik is a key minister who frequently appears on talk shows to present the official version of the government.

     His participation in the event hosted by India indicates that Pakistan wants to ease tensions with India to pave the way for its leadership to participate in the SCO summit being held in Islamabad next year.

     Ties between the two countries have been strained following the April 22, 2025, Pahalgam terror attack, which killed 26 people, and India's subsequent launch of Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

     The military confrontation lasted four days and ended on May 10 following an understanding between the military officials of the two countries.

     India has consistently raised the issue of cross-border terrorism at the SCO, maintaining that the grouping must adopt a united approach against terrorism and its financing, without double standards.

     In Delhi, Shekhawat on Friday told reporters that Pakistan's civilisational and cultural evolution is "not different from us".

     "It is less than 80 years only since they separated from us (referring to the 1947 Partition of the Indian subcontinent); their evolution has happened parallelly with us. Therefore, there doesn't seem to be a possibility that they will have any differences over this (cultural civilisation) subject," the Union minister said.

     Shekhawat said there are geopolitical, strategic and bilateral relations, and "going a step further, (at this forum) there will be discussions on how we can reinforce a cultural relation, in coming time, and can establish a better dialogue and harmony between countries, and in between the people of the countries".

     The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan became its permanent members in 2017. Iran became a member in 2023.

     Among the main goals of the SCO are to strengthen mutual trust, friendship and good-neighbourliness; and promote multilateral interaction to maintain and ensure peace, security and stability in the region, reads its website.

     Besides its member countries, the SCO has some observer states and dialogue partners. There are 15 countries with SCO dialogue partner status, namely, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Bahrain, Egypt, Cambodia, Qatar, Kuwait, Laos, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Sri Lanka, according to the SCO website.

     In October 2024, Islamabad hosted the SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting, which Minister for External Affairs S Jaishan­kar attended on behalf of his prime minister.

     India last month sent its SCO National Coordinator Alok Dimri to Islamabad for a preparatory meeting for the next SCO Council of Heads of State.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)