India has sent a senior foreign ministry official to Pakistan for a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting, the first such official visit in nearly two years.

Alok Dimri, a senior official of the Ministry of External Affairs, is attending the three-day SCO Council of National Coordinators meeting in Islamabad from September 28 to 30. It is the first coordinators’ meeting under Pakistan’s 2026-27 chairmanship of the SCO Council of Heads of State.

The visit comes days after India and Pakistan clashed over terrorism and Kashmir at the UN General Assembly. It also follows Operation Sindoor, the May 2025 military confrontation between the two countries.

Pakistan announced it will host the SCO summit in August 2027. Its chairmanship theme is “Turning Vision into Action: Connectivity, Innovation and Shared Prosperity”.

India has long said that terrorism and talks cannot go together, but it continues to engage Pakistan in multilateral forums like the SCO. The coordinators will finalise the calendar of meetings and events for Pakistan’s chairmanship year.