South Asian countries have been pushed many times by external powers to set aside their political grudges and strive for peace and prosperity in the region. [...] But rarely have external powers been motivated to try initiating people-to-people contact as an alternative path to regional unity and connectivity. People-to-people contact or “public diplomacy” remains the unfulfilled agenda of SAARC.

Music in Common is the driving organization behind this weekend's FODfest, aka Friends of Danny Festival, created by Todd Mack and local musicians to honor his friend, the late journalist and musician, Daniel Pearl. [...] "Since 2009, it has produced more than a half-dozen international tours in the Middle Eastern and western Asia regions for both youths and adults, which, according to the organization's website, promote "peer-to-peer diplomacy and cross-cultural ambassadorship."

On Wednesday tiny FC Astana welcomes the world for the first ever Champions League match in Kazakhstan […] FC Astana is part of the state-owned Astana Presidential Sports club, created at the behest of Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev. 

The Kremlin surprised nearly everyone when it unleashed its media machine on the world after the pro-Moscow president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, was chased from power in February 2014 and Ukraine fell into division and conflict. Moscow's version of events was available on television, radio, and in print media in dozens of languages in dozens of countries and the selective storytelling of these outlets succeeded in raising doubts in some peoples' minds as to who was telling the truth about events in Ukraine: Western media or Russian media.

On June 10 and 11, Kazakhstan hosted the Fifth Congress of World Religions.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has come up with a clever and unexpected move of extending a new $2 billion line of credit to Bangladesh. It will make China sit up and ponder deeper over its chequebook diplomacy. It will also send a message to smaller neighbours like Maldives which is playing a teasing game with India and refusing to free former president Mohammed Nasheed.