Pakistan Diplomat Attends SCO Luncheon Reception in New Delhi

Pakistan’s Charge d’Affaires in India, Saad Ahmad Warraich, attended a luncheon reception hosted by Sibi George, Secretary (West) at India’s Ministry of External Affairs, for resident envoys of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states and partner countries.

The reception brought together diplomats representing SCO countries and partners in the Indian capital.

The engagement comes amid renewed diplomatic activity under the SCO framework, with India having invited all 10 member states, including Pakistan, to participate in the inaugural SCO Civilisational Dialogue Forum, scheduled to take place in New Delhi from November 20 to 22. Pakistan’s Federal Minister for National Heritage and Culture, Aurangzeb Khan Khichi, is among those invited.

The invitation marks the first time India has invited a senior Pakistani minister since the military hostilities between the two countries in May 2025. The last high-level visit by a Pakistani foreign minister to India took place in May 2023, when Bilawal Bhutto Zardari attended an SCO foreign ministers’ meeting in Goa.

India has presented the upcoming forum and related engagements as part of its multilateral commitments under the SCO framework, rather than as a bilateral diplomatic reset with Pakistan.

Pakistan currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the SCO Council of Heads of State for the 2026–27 term.

Warraich has served as Pakistan’s top diplomatic representative in New Delhi since February 2024, amid the continued downgrading of diplomatic relations between the two countries, which no longer maintain full high commissioner-level representation.