New Delhi: India has invited Pakistan’s Minister for National Heritage and Culture, Aurangzeb Khan Khichi, to attend the first Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Civilisational Dialogue Forum, the Hindu reports. The forum is scheduled to be held in the national capital from November 20 to 22, the publication reports, citing sources. However, Pakistan has not yet confirmed who will lead its delegation.If Khichi attends, it will mark the first visit by a Pakistani minister to India since the SCO Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Goa in May 2023. That year, Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had visited India. The forum would also be the first such ministerial visit since the four-day military conflict between India and Pakistan in May 2025.The Civilisational Dialogue Forum, as per the Hindu report, will be held at Purana Qila in Delhi and inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is being organised jointly by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of External Affairs. The forum was proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi inCulture ministers from all 10 member states, including Pakistan, China, Russia, Iran, Belarus and Central Asian countries have been invited, along with representatives from 15 dialogue partners and observer countries, the Hindu reports.External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar visited Islamabad in November 2024 to represent India at the SCO Heads of Government meeting. India has not yet announced its level of representation at the SCO Heads of State Summit in Pakistan next year.India has continued participating in SCO activities despite suspending its participation in SAARC meetings in Islamabad since 2016. In September 2026, India sent SCO National Coordinator Alok Dimri to Islamabad for a coordination meeting related to Pakistan’s SCO presidency and preparations for the leaders’ summit scheduled to take place in Pakistan in August 2027.