Jerusalem and Minsk are set to sign a visa-waiver program, Israel’s ambassador to the internationally ostracized former Soviet republic of Belarus said. Ambassador Yosef Shagal announced the signing on Friday to 700 participants at the Limmud FSU conference in Vitebsk, the former Soviet country’s third-largest city. The Limmud conference is an educational and cultural gathering.

Tags: israel, belarus, visa waiver programs, tourism, cross cultural understanding, exchange

This week, China announced that it was sending 700 military personnel to join the UN's peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, an oil-rich east African state and site of an ongoing civil war. China has contributed to UN peacekeeping missions before, but the unprecedented size of its contribution, and its purpose in sending troops, reveals just how complicated China's foreign outreach has become as the country continues its rise to super-power status.

Tags: china, soft power, south sudan, united nations, military diplomacy, africa, oil diplomacy

Members of a Cuban medical brigade will begin arriving in Ebola-struck Sierra Leone at the beginning of October. Cuba's Public Health Minister Roberto Morales announced today. He said the 165-member team will include 62 doctors and 103 nurses. All, he said, have more than 15 years' experience and have previously served in medical cooperation missions abroad.

Tags: cuba, ebola, medical diplomacy, global aid, public diplomacy

The government has pledged a £1.5 million grant to the Royal Shakespeare Company, to translate the entire works of Shakespeare into Chinese.  The Department for Culture, Media and Sport will give the RSC a further £300,000 to tour through China, in the hopes of boosting tourism and "cultural links".

Tags: great britain, william shakespeare, china, Cultural Diplomacy, tourism

Where in the world is Armenia? It’s a question that the country’s President, Serzh Sargsyan, is hoping to get more people around the globe to answer correctly. He wants to mobilize the 10 million Armenians living abroad for a global internet publicity campaign to boost tourism and influence foreign investors. Referring to the “One Armenian, One Article” campaign, the BBC reminds that the idea is to get expatriates to write positive stories about the country.

Tags: nation branding, tourism, social media, armenia, soft power, direct foreign investment

Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Evan Ryan will participate in a Google+ Hangout on September 15 to discuss the impact of music diplomacy with participants from the State Department’s Center Stage and American Music Abroad programs. Representatives from the New England Foundation of the Arts and the Association of American Voices will also join the conversation.

Tags: us department of state, google, social media, music diplomacy, center stage, american music abroad

The State of Kuwait is currently taking part in the third Arabic Arts Festival held in the Chinese capital Beijing, with participants underlining necessity of boosting ties and cultural interactions between the Chinese and Arab nations.  The cultural event has already kicked off, with Kuwait's participation, led by Mohammad Al-Asousi, Deputy Secretary General of the National Council for Culture, Arts, and Letters.

Tags: kuwait, china, cultural relations, Cultural Diplomacy, arab, public diplomacy, art diplomacy

During the meeting in Dushanbe on Wednesday, Rasulzoda expressed certainty that all the reached agreements between the two countries will be properly implemented.  Rasulzoda said that construction of major infrastructural projects in Tajikistan by Iran is the result of signing more than 100 documents and Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs).  

Tags: iran, tajikistan, international development, global aid