The invite to Aurangzeb Khan Khichi is the first from New Delhi to a Pakistani official since Operation Sindoor last year

India has invited Pakistan to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meet in Delhi, the first such invite since the armed stand-off between the two nuclear-armed South Asian countries last year.

New Delhi invited Pakistani Minister for National Heritage and Culture Aurangzeb Khan Khichi to the first SCO civilizational Dialogue Forum to be held on November 20-22.

This is the first time a Pakistani minister is being invited by India since the clash. The stand-off, dubbed Operation Sindoor by New Delhi, followed a terror attack in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir that killed more than a score of Indian civilians.

If Khichi accepts the invite, it will be the first time since the SCO foreign ministers’ meeting in Goa in 2023 – attended by Bhilawal Bhutto – that a Pakistani minister would visit India.…