They say politics makes for strange bedfellows, and if that's the case then perhaps we don't have to look any further than the images coming out of Astana last week for proof of that dictum.

Astana, of course, is the capital of Kazakhstan, and last weekend it played host to the annual leaders' summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), an intergovernmental body that until this month had just six permanent members: China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. But this summit, the group's 15th annual meeting, marked a special occasion: the accession of two new members to the organization. And not just any members. India and Pakistan have officially moved up the ranks from observer states to permanent members of the SCO.

That's right, after years of talks and one year of waiting, India and Pakistan have finally become full-fledged SCO members…