FO says govt committed to promoting dialogue among civilisations, fostering people-to-people contacts
Minister for Climate Change Musadik Malik. PHOTO: FILE
The Foreign Office said on Saturday that Climate Change Minister Musadik Malik would represent Pakistan at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Civilisational Dialogue in New Delhi from November 20 to 22.
In a post on X, the FO stated that the event would bring together representatives from SCO member states to exchange views on issues related to civilisational dialogue and cultural understanding.
It added that the government “remains committed to promoting dialogue among civilisations and fostering people-to-people contacts within the SCO framework in a spirit of mutual trust”.
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Pakistan to Participate in SCO Civilizational Dialogue in New Delhi
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— Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan (@ForeignOfficePk) November 14, 2026
The nomination followed last month’s SCO Council of National Coordinators, with Pakistan at the helm. Alok Dimri, India’s SCO national coordinator and an additional secretary at the Ministry of External Affairs, was among the national coordinators attending the meeting in Islamabad.
A video released by the FO showed Dimri warmly greeting Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar with a handshake. The Indian official was subsequently seen standing between Dar and Pakistan’s National Coordinator for the SCO Dr Muhammad Faisal, in what was a strikingly cordial visual given the state of bilateral relations.
The interaction also added significance as India and Pakistan had only recently traded barbs at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar had accused Pakistan of being a “serial practitioner of terrorism” while responding to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s address to the UNGA. Islamabad, meanwhile, strongly rejected India’s allegations and defended Pakistan’s position on the Kashmir dispute and the 2025 military confrontation between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
Dimri’s visit to Islamabad marked an important Indian participation in an SCO meeting hosted by Pakistan. While India has maintained that bilateral engagement with Pakistan requires a conducive environment, New Delhi has continued to participate in multilateral SCO processes.
In 2024, Jaishankar visited Pakistan for the 23rd SCO summit, marking the first by an Indian foreign minister to Islamabad in nearly a decade.
A year prior, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Pakistan’s foreign minister at the time, visited India in May, leading the Pakistani delegation for the SCO council of foreign ministers meeting in Goa.
The visit marked the first by a Pakistani foreign minister to India since 2011.
The diplomatic engagements offer a reminder that even amid intense bilateral tensions, New Delhi and Islamabad continue to engage within multilateral forums.
