Leaders of India and Pakistan meet in Russia

The attacks last November in Mumbai, which left over 160 dead, also placed a further strain on the often tense relations between India and Pakistan, with the former country claiming that the attacks were launched by terrorists based in Pakistan.

Whilst considerable tensions still exist between the two countries, a meeting today in Russia between the newly reelected Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Asif Ali Zardari, President of Pakistan since September 2008, gave renewed hopes for a new era in improved relations. This was the first such meeting since the attacks that took place almost seven months ago in the Indian city formerly known as Bombay. The two men were attending a summit being held by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg. The SCO is an organization of six countries, including Russia and China, established in 2001 principally to promote cooperation between it's members' governments on security related issues. Both India and Pakistan, for whom the region of Kashmir and the dispute over it's control has frequently proved to be a focus of their differences, enjoy, along with Mongolia and Iran, observer status with the SCO. Recent surges by the Pakistani military against Taliban activity in the country's Swat Valley region and belated acknowledgment from Mr Zardari's government that last Novembers' attacks in Mumbai were planned in part by groups based in their country may have done little to convince Mr Singh that it's western neighbor is completely serious about tackling persistent problems with terrorists in South Asia. He confirmed as much when, according to the BBC, upon meeting Mr Zardari he told him:

I am happy to meet you, but my mandate is to tell you that the territory of Pakistan must not be used for terrorism

Earlier this month the Pakistani Supreme Court released from custody Hafiz Saeed, the head of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa charity which is said to be an assumed name for Lashkar-e-Taiba. It is the latter group which India claims carried out the Mumbai attacks and this decision by a Pakistani court is likely to have reinforced Mr Singh's skepticism regarding Pakistan's commitment to fighting terror. Nevertheless the Pakistani Foreign Ministry were keen to emphasize that today's meeting of the two national leaders was a "positive development" and they went on to confirm that they would be meeting soon with their Indian counterparts for more detailed talks. In doing so they denied that Mr Singh, in speaking as frankly as he did, had made such talks more difficult. The significance of today's meeting will not be lost on US officials in Washington. Both countries are considered US allies but a report by the New York Times suggests that, whilst encouraging talks between the two countries, in particular the US does not wish to be seen applying undue pressure on India to meet and negotiate with their long standing adversary. The paper goes on to say that the top US diplomat for South Asia, William Burns, visited the Indian capital New Delhi only last week and any statements he made whilst he was there were carefully analyzed for some indication as to the message he may have brought from the Obama administration for one or both of India and Pakistan. And it is not just the tensions between India and Pakistan, both of them countries in possession of nuclear weapons, that concentrates the minds of officials throughout the West. Their proximity to and relationships with, more especially Pakistan, both Iran and Afghanistan can have an important bearing on events in an increasingly volatile part of the world.