Pakistan’s Climate Change Minister Musadik Malik is scheduled to travel to India later this month for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Civilisational Dialogue in New Delhi, becoming the first Pakistani minister to visit the country in three years. Pakistan’s Foreign Office confirmed on Saturday that Malik will represent Islamabad at the three-day event, set for November 20-22.
The gathering is expected to bring together officials from SCO member states for discussions on civilisational dialogue, cultural understanding, and people-to-people contacts.
In its statement, the Foreign Office said Islamabad remains committed to promoting dialogue among civilisations and strengthening people-to-people ties within the SCO framework based on mutual respect. India had earlier announced on October 28 that it had sent invitations to all SCO members in line with established practice.
Malik’s trip would mark the first visit by a Pakistani minister to India since then-Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari attended the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers meeting in Goa in May 2023. It would also be the first such visit since the brief military confrontation between the two countries in May 2025.
Bilateral ties have been strained since the April 22, 2025, terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, that killed 26 people. India responded with Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The ensuing four-day confrontation ended on May 10 after an understanding between the two sides’ military officials.
Despite the tensions, both countries have continued to engage through the SCO, the Eurasian grouping that offers a multilateral platform for regional cooperation. India has consistently raised the issue of cross-border terrorism in the forum and called for a collective approach to combating terrorism and its financing.
The upcoming dialogue also comes as Pakistan prepares to host the SCO Council of Heads of State summit in 2027. Islamabad has already begun preparations for the summit. In September, India sent its SCO National Coordinator Alok Dimri to Islamabad for a preparatory meeting, part of the organisation’s ongoing engagements even in the absence of substantive bilateral dialogue between New Delhi and Islamabad.
The SCO currently comprises 10 member states: India, Pakistan, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, and Belarus. Malik’s participation is expected to focus on the multilateral agenda of the dialogue rather than bilateral issues, consistent with the limited high-level contacts between the two neighbours in recent years.