This weekend, New Delhi will become a giant diplomatic stage. Leaders will arrive, flags will go up, motorcades will sweep through the city and the world's cameras will wait for the handshakes. But the real action at a summit often happens in the spaces between the set pieces.
A leader may have 20 minutes to say what months of official negotiations could not. Two others may bump into each other on the way to dinner and decide to talk. A carefully timed photograph can send a message before a single word is spoken. Even who gets a private meeting, who gets a quick pull-aside and who gets only a wave across the room can tell its own story.
