File photo: India and Pakistan flags (Image enhanced using AI)
NEW DELHI: India has invited Pakistan for the inaugural meeting of the SCO civilisational dialogue forum that it will host next month.Prime Minister Narendra Modi had proposed the dialogue forum during his visit to Tianjin last year for the SCO summit, saying that it would work to foster greater people-to-people ties and cultural understanding within the grouping.Aurungzeb Khan Khichi, minister for national heritage and culture, has been invited for the dialogue.The Eurasian bloc continues to enjoy immunity from India-Pakistan tensions, allowing rare high-level visits from both sides even in the absence of any substantive bilateral engagement between the two countries for over a decade.
The last Pakistan minister to visit India was Bilawal Bhutto in 2023 for a meeting of the SCO foreign ministers.External affairs minister S Jaishankar travelled to Pakistan the next year for the meeting of SCO heads of govt. On both occasions, there was no bilateral meeting.The invitation for the civilisational dialogue comes weeks after India sent its SCO national coordinator Alok Dimri to Pakistan for a high-level meeting to finalise the grouping’s agenda and meetings in the run-up to the Islamabad summit next year.Pakistan currently holds the SCO presidency and will host the heads of state summit next year. SCO national coordinator Dimri’s visit was the first senior-level visit from either side since the Pahalgam terror attack.