A picture is worth a proverbial 1,000 words, though I only have 800 for last weekend-s click of the eight heads of government at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. It features Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan, and the Chinese and Russian Presidents, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, among others. Modi is standing alone at the far end, joylessly, avoiding the Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev next to him. Imran is just off-centre, the Tajik and Uzbek heads beyond him. In almost every photo from the SCO meeting, Imran is in animated, friendly conversation with Putin. You might even mistake Putin for a cricket fan.

World leaders, especially strongmen like Putin, have long relied on the power of propaganda and are canny about the news photos being taken. Nothing is casual or coincidental or accidental. This is easily confirmed if there are a series of "casual" photos — like Putin and Imran in animated discussion at a table. Putin is conveying that Imran is his buddy.