India Sends SCO Coordinator to Pakistan, but Bilateral Talks Remain Off the Agenda
India sent a senior foreign-ministry official to Islamabad for a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting held from September 28 to 30, 2026. The trip placed an Indian diplomat in Pakistan at a particularly strained point in relations between the neighbours, but its purpose was multilateral: preparing the regional organisation’s work under Pakistan’s chairmanship.
Alok Amitabh Dimri, an additional secretary in India’s Ministry of External Affairs and its national coordinator for the SCO, attended the meeting of the organisation’s Council of National Coordinators. His role matters. National coordinators manage the SCO’s continuing business and prepare meetings for its leaders and foreign ministers; they are not, simply by attending, conducting bilateral negotiations with the host country.
What the Islamabad meeting covered
Pakistan hosted the gathering as it began chairing the SCO Council of Heads of State for 2026–27. Pakistan’s foreign ministry said the coordinators would discuss its programme for the chairmanship, preparations for forthcoming meetings and other organisational matters. The SCO also identified political, economic, trade, cultural and humanitarian cooperation among the subjects on the agenda.
Those are practical reasons for India to send its designated coordinator. India and Pakistan are both full members of the SCO, so a meeting hosted by one country can require the other to participate without changing the character of their relationship. Pakistan plans to host a heads-of-state meeting in August 2027, giving the coordinators work to do well before any leaders gather.
Dimri’s presence therefore has a narrower meaning than the symbolism of an Indian official arriving in Islamabad might suggest. It shows that New Delhi is continuing to take part in an organisation to which it belongs, including when Pakistan is the host. It does not establish that the two governments have agreed to reopen a separate channel for resolving their disputes.
Why the visit draws attention
High-level travel between India and Pakistan is unusual enough to attract scrutiny. India’s external affairs minister, S. Jaishankar, went to Islamabad in October 2024 for an SCO heads-of-government meeting. That visit likewise took place within the organisation’s framework rather than as a bilateral summit. Dimri’s trip is at a lower official level, although it comes after a sharper deterioration in relations in 2025.
The April 2025 attack in Pahalgam and the India–Pakistan military confrontation that followed in May deepened mistrust. India has continued to emphasise its concerns about terrorism in describing the conditions needed for bilateral engagement. Against that background, the distinction between attending an SCO meeting and arranging direct talks is central to understanding this visit.
There has been no announcement of a bilateral India–Pakistan meeting arising from Dimri’s attendance. Nor does participation in the coordinators’ meeting settle whether India’s prime minister will travel to Pakistan for the planned 2027 SCO gathering. Representation at that event is a separate decision, still to be made.
Participation without a diplomatic reset
The SCO gives India a forum for discussions with a wider group of member states on regional cooperation. Sitting at the same table as a Pakistani representative in that setting is different from holding talks dedicated to India–Pakistan relations. It can keep routine multilateral work moving even when direct diplomacy remains constrained.
That distinction also prevents too much from being read into a single journey. A bilateral breakthrough would require evidence of a changed policy, a direct negotiating process or an agreed next step between the governments. The Islamabad meeting, as described by its organisers, was about the SCO’s calendar and priorities. India’s decision to attend is a meaningful act of participation in that forum, but it is not, on its own, a diplomatic reset.
