Pakistan minister India visit: Musadik Malik to attend SCO forum in Delhi
Climate minister Musadik Malik will go to New Delhi for an SCO forum on 20 to 22 November, the first Pakistani minister in India in over three years.
Pakistan is sending a federal minister to India for the first time in more than three years. The Foreign Office said on Saturday, 14 November, that Climate Change Minister Dr Musadik Masood Malik will represent Pakistan at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s Civilisational Dialogue in New Delhi from 20 to 22 November.
The last Pakistani minister to set foot in India on official business was Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who went to Goa in May 2023 as foreign minister for an SCO foreign ministers’ meeting. Since then the two countries have barely spoken outside multilateral rooms, and in May 2025 they fought their worst military clashes in decades.
What is the SCO Civilisational Dialogue?
It is a three-day cultural forum, not a security or trade summit. India’s culture and external affairs ministries are organising it jointly, Outlook India reported, and Indian media say it will be held at Delhi’s Purana Qila, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi expected to open it.
The Foreign Office said the event will bring SCO members together to talk about dialogue between civilisations and cultural understanding. Pakistan, it said, remains committed to promoting that dialogue and people-to-people contacts within the SCO framework, “in a spirit of mutual respect”.
What has India said?
India’s Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said on Friday that 15 countries had confirmed, including China, Iran, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and that he hoped Pakistan would come too, according to Outlook India. He said the forum would keep its focus on shared culture rather than geopolitics, and spoke of India and Pakistan having grown up side by side culturally despite their political split. Aaj News reported that India sent its invitations a day before Pakistan announced its nominee.
Will Musadik Malik meet Indian leaders?
No bilateral meeting has been announced by either side, and none of the reports mention one. Malik is going as Pakistan’s representative at a multilateral event, so any handshake or side conversation would be news in itself. Treat claims of planned India-Pakistan talks as unconfirmed unless the Foreign Office or India’s External Affairs Ministry says so.
Why does this visit matter?
Because ministers from the two countries have not been in the same room much since 2023. Trade, visas and cricket ties are frozen or limited, and the Indus Waters dispute is still open. A climate minister at a culture forum will not change that.
What it does show is that both governments are keeping the SCO channel working. The Nation reported that India’s SCO national coordinator, Alok Dimri, visited Islamabad in September, and that Pakistan is preparing to host an SCO heads of state summit, expected in 2027. If that summit happens, India would be invited to Islamabad, and visits like this one are the groundwork.
Malik, a PML-N leader, has served as petroleum minister before taking the climate portfolio.
The forum opens on Friday, 20 November. The next thing to watch is whether Malik and any Indian minister share a stage or a side meeting during the three days.
