New Delhi: In a rare moment of unusual candour, India’s National SCO Coordinator Alok Dimri, who is in Islamabad for the three-day SCO national coordinators meet, told Pakistan’s state TV that he would like to visit Lahore.
In the video, shared by Pakistan’s foreign ministry, Dimri says in Hindi, “I got to visit Pakistan for the first time. I am happy to visit Islamabad.”
“For now, I have only visited Islamabad but I wish to visit Lahore, Faisalabad or Sialkot as well,” Dimri said, speaking in Islamabad on the sidelines of the first meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of National Coordinators under Pakistan’s chairmanship.
Amid an ongoing freeze in diplomatic ties, Dimri’s remarks were welcomed on both sides of the border. Another video shows Pakistan Deputy PM Ishaq Dar and Dimri shaking hands while a picture shared by Pakistan’s foreign ministry shows them standing side-by-side.
India and Pakistan have continued to engage through the SCO even as broader ties have deteriorated. Officials of both countries have traded accusations at international fora like UNGA, while direct political and diplomatic contact between the two countries remains limited. Multilateral meetings, too, have continued.
The annual meetings of the SCO national coordinators are held in different cities, Dimri explained, leaving little opportunity this time for a wider tour. But Lahore, in particular, is not entirely off the itinerary of the SCO’s Pakistani presidency.
“Our meeting for CNC will go on for the year. Lahore has been declared as a SCO cultural city,” Dimri said. He said the Indian delegation had received a briefing and visited the National Council for Arts and that more cultural activities would take place during Pakistan’s year as chair of the organisation.
“So there will be activities throughout the year,” he said. “So I hope that we will get to see more through them. We will also get a chance to meet people.”
The remarks offered a glimpse of the softer side of an otherwise institutional interaction.
The meeting in Islamabad is the first gathering of SCO national coordinators since Pakistan assumed the organisation’s rotating presidency on 1 September. Pakistan is scheduled to host the SCO leaders’ summit in August 2027. It has chosen “Turning Vision into Action: Connectivity, Innovation and Shared Prosperity” as the theme of its presidency.
Dimri spoke about the council meeting at length. “This is a journey in which the member states of Eurasian and Asian landmasses have come together on the SCO platform,” he said. “And we have designed an agenda for our well-being, prosperity and welfare.”
“Connectivity is a very important issue,” Dimri added, pointing to regional connectivity, trade and transit as areas where progress was being made.
The organisation brings together 10 permanent members, including India, Pakistan, China, Russia, Iran and Belarus. India and Pakistan joined as full members in 2017, making the SCO one of the few multilateral settings in which officials from the two countries regularly interact with one another.
Dimri also highlighted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposal for a Civilisation Dialogue Forum within the SCO, saying member states had agreed to establish such a forum. He then described the SCO as a bridge connecting several parts of Asia.
“As I told you, on one side is North Asia, on the other side is East Asia, and on the other side is Central Asia,” he said. “So this is also an opportunity for our languages, our voices and our thoughts to reach the world through the SCO.”
Former diplomats, too, appreciated Dimri’s comments. Rajiv Dogra, former Ambassador of India to Romania, termed his comments “measured & meaningful”.
Measured & meaningful
Well spoken, Alok Dimri.@IFS https://t.co/seMY6dD2P2
— Amb Rajiv Dogra (@AmbRajivDogra) September 30, 2026
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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