Reporting snapshot · 28 September 2026. The first meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's (SCO) Council of National Coordinators (CNC) under Pakistan's chairmanship of the SCO Council of Heads of State (CHS) for 2026-27 opens in Islamabad on Monday, 28 September, and runs for three days. This account is a synthesis of the Foreign Office's curtain-raiser statement and reporting by Dawn and The Express Tribune; as of the morning of 28 September no detailed outcome statements from the first day of the session had been released.
What happened
National coordinators of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation begin a three-day meeting in Islamabad on Monday, 28 September, the first session of the SCO Council of National Coordinators to be held under Pakistan’s chairmanship of the SCO Council of Heads of State for the 2026-27 term. The Foreign Office said in a curtain-raiser on Sunday that the meeting would be chaired by Pakistan’s national coordinator for the SCO and attended by counterparts from SCO member states together with representatives of the SCO Secretariat, Dawn reported.
According to the Foreign Office statement, the national coordinators “would discuss a wide range of issues relating to SCO cooperation and coordination, including the programme of activities under Pakistan’s chairmanship, preparations for upcoming SCO meetings and events, and other matters on the agenda of the organisation,” The Express Tribune reported. The meeting is the first working-level gathering under Islamabad’s year-long chairmanship of the grouping’s top decision-making body, which Pakistan assumed at the 26th SCO summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in early September.
The three-day session in the federal capital is intended to coordinate the programme of activities Pakistan will steer during its chairmanship, which is built around the theme “Turning Vision into Action: Connectivity, Innovation and Shared Prosperity.” The Foreign Office has said Pakistan’s chairmanship would focus on promoting greater connectivity, fostering innovation, enhancing economic cooperation and strengthening people-to-people contacts, with the aim of translating the shared vision of member states into practical, mutually beneficial initiatives.
Why it matters
The Islamabad meeting matters chiefly as the opening engagement of a year-long chairmanship that will culminate in the SCO Council of Heads of State summit Pakistan is scheduled to host in Islamabad in August 2027 — the gathering of the bloc’s presidents and prime ministers and its highest decision-making forum. The Foreign Office described the current session as “an important initial engagement” that would feed directly into preparations for high-level meetings and activities during the chairmanship, The Express Tribune reported.
The SCO is one of the world’s most populous regional blocs, bringing together ten member states — China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus — that together account for a large share of the global population and economy. For Islamabad, the chairmanship is a diplomatic platform that touches several of its core interests: China-Pakistan Economic Corridor connectivity, counter-terrorism cooperation through the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (SCO-RATS), which Pakistan also chairs, and closer economic engagement with Central Asian states. Pakistan hosted the 12th meeting of the SCO heads of border services in July and chairs SCO-RATS, a role it took up in September 2025, Dawn noted.
Because the Council of National Coordinators brings together officials from all member states, the Islamabad meeting also means Indian and Pakistani officials are convening at a working level on Pakistani soil for an SCO-related session, even as bilateral ties remain frozen and the question of whether India’s prime minister will attend the 2027 summit in Islamabad stays open. The gathering is expected to help approve a calendar of events for the chairmanship year and prepare the ground for the higher-level engagements Pakistan will host.
What is still uncertain
As of the morning of 28 September, no detailed agenda outcomes, participant lists or statements from the first day of the Islamabad session had been published, and the Foreign Office’s curtain-raiser did not disclose which officials from each member state were attending. The meeting’s concrete results — including the programme of activities it approves and any signals about attendance at the 2027 summit — are expected to become clearer over the three days of deliberations and in subsequent official communications.
It also remains to be seen how the session navigates the fault lines that surfaced at the Bishkek summit, where leaders signed the Bishkek Declaration amid divisions over Indian and Chinese strategic priorities, financing for regional infrastructure, and how far the bloc should move toward an adversarial posture toward Western institutions. National coordinators’ meetings typically work through procedural and coordination matters rather than headline policy, so the value of this week’s session is likely to be measured by how smoothly it sets up the chairmanship year and the 2027 summit rather than by any single decision.
Sources & reporting notes
This is a synthesis of published material, not eyewitness reporting. Sources were reviewed on 28 September 2026.
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs — Curtain Raiser: First Meeting of SCO Council of National Coordinators, Islamabad (28-30 September 2026)27 September 2026 · Primary record: official confirmation of the meeting dates, agenda, chairmanship theme and 2027 summit preparations.
- Dawn — SCO meeting in Islamabad from Sept 28-30 to discuss activities under Pakistan's chairmanship27 September 2026 · Independent reporting on the Foreign Office statement, the chairmanship theme, and Pakistan's SCO-RATS and border-services roles.
- The Express Tribune — SCO meeting to begin in Islamabad under Pakistan's chairmanship on Monday: FO27 September 2026 · Independent reporting on the CNC meeting's purpose, the chairmanship handover at Bishkek, and preparations for the August 2027 summit.
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