📷 Image: Wikimedia Commons / N509FZ
Politics
India invites Pakistani minister to SCO summit as bilateral ties remain tense
✍️ The Assam Tribune
🗓 28 Oct 2026, 01:17 PM
👁 16
New Delhi has formally invited a senior Pakistani minister to attend the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, even as diplomatic relations between the two neighbours remain strained.
New Delhi has extended a formal invitation to a senior minister from Pakistan to participate in the forthcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) forum, scheduled for later this year. The move comes at a time when bilateral ties between the two nuclear‑armed neighbours are under considerable strain.
India and Pakistan have been engaged in a series of diplomatic stand‑offs that have kept relations tense, prompting New Delhi to keep diplomatic channels open through multilateral platforms such as the SCO. By inviting the Pakistani official, India signals its willingness to engage on issues of regional security and economic cooperation despite ongoing frictions.
The Pakistani side has not yet confirmed whether its minister will attend the summit, and officials in both capitals have refrained from commenting on the invitation. The confirmation of attendance will likely be watched closely as an indicator of the direction of Indo‑Pak dialogue in the coming months.
Both countries are full members of the SCO, which provides a venue for cooperation on security, trade and cultural exchange among its Eurasian members. The upcoming forum could therefore serve as a rare opportunity for the two rivals to interact in a multilateral setting, should the invitation be accepted.
India and Pakistan have been engaged in a series of diplomatic stand‑offs that have kept relations tense, prompting New Delhi to keep diplomatic channels open through multilateral platforms such as the SCO. By inviting the Pakistani official, India signals its willingness to engage on issues of regional security and economic cooperation despite ongoing frictions.
The Pakistani side has not yet confirmed whether its minister will attend the summit, and officials in both capitals have refrained from commenting on the invitation. The confirmation of attendance will likely be watched closely as an indicator of the direction of Indo‑Pak dialogue in the coming months.
Both countries are full members of the SCO, which provides a venue for cooperation on security, trade and cultural exchange among its Eurasian members. The upcoming forum could therefore serve as a rare opportunity for the two rivals to interact in a multilateral setting, should the invitation be accepted.