18 months after Operation Sindoor, India invites Pakistan for SCO event in Delhi

India has invited all 10 countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), including Pakistan, for the bloc’s inaugural Civilisational Dialogue Forum to be held in Delhi from November 20-22, officials aware of the matter said on Tuesday.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh addresses the 25th Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. (PIB)Pakistan last attended the SCO’s foreign ministers’ meeting in Goa in May 2023.

Also Read I J&K Congress distances self from Farooq’s Pak remarks All SCO members have been invited for the dialogue and the multilateral initiative has nothing to do with bilateral relations with Pakistan, the officials said, adding that the development should be viewed in the broader context.

Pakistan’s national heritage and culture minister Aurangzeb Khan Khichi has been invited, HT learns. Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed the dialogue at the SCO leaders’ Summit in Tianjin last year. External affairs minister S Jaishankar visited Pakistan in October 2024 for the SCO Council Heads of Government meeting, becoming the first Indian foreign minister to visit Pakistan in nine years.

Organised jointly by the ministries of culture and external affairs, the SCO event’s invitation to Pakistan comes nearly 18 months after Operation Sindoor, the four-day military confrontation triggered by the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people.

Between the launch of the operation in the early hours of May 7 and the ceasefire on May 10 evening, Indian forces bombed nine terror camps in Pakistan and PoK, killing at least 100 terrorists, and the Indian Air Force struck targets at 13 Pakistani airbases and military installations.

India recently hit out at Pakistan over backing terror during an SCO meeting. On October 20, defence minister Rajnath Singh called for joint action to dismantle terrorism, asserting that there can be no justification for the scourge or double standards in tackling it, in a pointed message delivered in the presence of Pakistan’s deputy PM and defence minister Ishaq Dar at the 25th meeting of SCO council of heads of government at Dushanbe in Tajikistan.

Rahul Singh is Defence Editor at Hindustan Times and has covered military affairs and national security for nearly 25 years. Apart from extensive and deep reporting on the Indian military, including several newsbreaks that have set the national news agenda over the years, Rahul has reported from conflict zones including Jammu & Kashmir, India’s North-east and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Rahul has co-authored the bestselling 'India's Most Fearless' series of books on recent Indian military operations. Widely read and translated into multiple languages, the books place an emphasis on firsthand accounts of daring missions across the three services.

His work has been adapted into web series and films including the National Award-winning Amaran. Rahul comes from an Army background and attended schools across the country before completing his education from Panjab University, Chandigarh.

Grew up playing tennis, now mostly cheers from the sidelines. Works in Delhi, heart in the mountains.Read More