New Delhi: Pakistan will participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)’s first ‘Civilisational Dialogue Forum’ in New Delhi later this month, the foreign office in Islamabad said on Saturday (November 14), naming climate change and environmental coordination minister Musadik Malik as its representative.Islamabad “remains committed to promoting dialogue among civilisations and fostering people-to-people contacts within the SCO framework in a spirit of mutual respect,” the foreign office said in its statement.While New Delhi earlier said it had invited culture minister-level delegations from all SCO members – Pakistan is among the eight others – as well as its 15 dialogue partners and one observer country to the Forum scheduled to take place between November 20 and 22, Saturday’s statement confirms the fact and level of Islamabad’s participation.Malik’s participation will mark the first Pakistani ministerial visit to India since then-foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari attended the SCO meeting of his peers in Goa and, more prominently, since the four-day India-Pakistan military conflict in May last year.Pakistan also happens to be the host of the upcoming SCO heads of state summit set to take place next year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who last crossed the Radcliffe Line 11 years ago, ordinarily represents India at these meetings but New Delhi has not yet confirmed the level of its participation in next year’s iteration.When the SCO heads of government summit was held in Islamabad two years ago, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar had represented India at that meeting.According to the Indian government, which had proposed creating the Civilisational Dialogue Forum, the event next month will focus on the areas of cultural expression; art and architecture; language and literature; and religious and philosophical traditions. It was originally scheduled to take place in Kolkata in July.Apart from India and Pakistan, which became full members of the 25-year-old SCO grouping in 2017, the other members of the Organisation are Belarus, China, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.