NEW DELHI, Nov 14: Breaking the deadlock for the last three years, the Climate Minister Musadik Masood Malik will represent Pakistan at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Civilizational Dialogue to be held in New Delhi from November 20-22, Pakistan Foreign Ministry announced on Saturday.
It will be the first visit by a Pakistani minister to India in more than three years. “The Government of Pakistan remains committed to promoting dialogue among civilisations and fostering people-to-people contacts within the SCO framework in a spirit of mutual,” reads the statement.
The last such high-level visit to India was by the then Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who travelled to Goa in May 2023 for a meeting of SCO Foreign Ministers. Mr Malik is a key Minister who frequently appears on talk shows to present the official version of the government.
His participation in the event hosted by India shows that Pakistan wants to ease tensions with India to pave the way for its leadership to participate in the SCO summit to be held in Islamabad next year.
Ties between the two countries have further strained following the April 22, 2025, Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people, mostly innocent tourists, were killed, and India’s subsequent launch of Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
The military confrontation lasted four days and ended on May 10 following an understanding between the military officials of the two countries. India has consistently raised the issue of cross-border terrorism at the SCO, maintaining that the grouping must adopt a united approach against terrorism and its financing, without double standards.
SCO is a Eurasian political, economic, and security intergovernmental bloc comprising India, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Belarus. In October 2024, Islamabad hosted the SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting, which Minister for External Affairs S Jaishankar attended on behalf of the prime minister. India last month sent its SCO National Coordinator, Alok Dimri, to Islamabad for a preparatory meeting for the next SCO Council of Heads of State.
(Manas Dasgupta)