The U.S. government is auditing a foreign aid program that loaned almost $1 billion to renewable energy projects in Chile – including solar farms in such deep financial trouble that the loans may never be fully repaid, according to people familiar with the matter. [...] OPIC, which aims to advance U.S. interests by lending to overseas business ventures, loaned about $2.5 billion to 32 projects throughout Latin America, in 2013-2014 with over a third of those funds going to Chilean energy projects.

Just a couple of weeks before the Belt and Road Forum, held in Beijing earlier this month, Sinica Podcast co-host Jeremy Goldkorn and I spoke with Joseph Nye, professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, for our show. We talked about soft power, a term he coined and defined, and for which he’s perhaps best known — about China’s fixation with it, its prospects for augmenting it in the age of Trump, and the decidedly mixed results of its multibillion-dollar investments in soft power projects.

The economic and commercial relations between Romania and Spain will also be promoted through the recently established Commercial Diplomacy Chamber with the Kingdom of Spain, an NGO that is aiming to also support the collaboration in tourism, agriculture, scientific research, healthcare, telecommunications, fight against corruption, intellectual property and consumers' protection. [...] Currently, over one million Romanian nationals live and work in Spain, and the Spanish business milieu is represented in Romania by over 6,000 legal entities.  

British chancellor Philip Hammond has called for closer economic ties with China as Britain enters a new post-Brexit era. As early as in 2015 when Chinese President Xi Jin-ping made his first state visit to the United Kingdom, which ushered a “golden age” to bilateral relations, the two great powers declared their consensus in working together with all Belt and Road project partners. [...] China and Britain need to use Xi’s proposed Belt and Road Initiative to raise awareness of the mutual benefits and overall exchanges of people to people of the two countries. 

Nowadays, one of the most historically charged rivalries on the international stage is that between Pakistan and India, and nowhere is it bigger than in the sport the countries are best at: cricket. India and Pakistan have been playing cricket against each other since 1952, and the game has become a metaphor of sorts for the countries’ relationship. In fact, the politics between the two nations and the games on the field are so intertwined that a phrase was coined: Cricket Diplomacy. 

The 2017 Joint Conference of Confucius Institutes in Africa was hosted by the Confucius Institute at the University of Zambia with the goal to “exchange experiences to enhance cooperation and promote the development of Confucius Institutes of Africa”. The spread of Confucius Institutes across Africa, however, is only half of China’s language strategy. In addition to promoting Chinese language learning, China is also encouraging its own citizens to learn the native languages of those countries that it has diplomatic relations with. 

Children's Day came early for a group of "Young Cultural Ambassadors" who were given the rare opportunity last Saturday, to interact with a real Ambassador and enjoy a day of learning, art and games at the Embassy of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana.The event aimed to promote cultural awareness by bringing the world to Chinese children and taking Chinese culture to children all over the world. It was also part of of activities organized by the Embassy to commemorate 45 years Guyana-China diplomatic relations. 

Canadian Minister of Immigration Refugees and Citizenship, Ahmed Hussein, has arrived in Egypt to advance education exchange opportunities between Egypt and Canada. During his visit, Hussein attended the Canadian International College in Cairo where he met with the President of the college and Canadian Ambassador to Egypt Troy Lulashnyk. There are plans to establish the University of Canada in Egypt which will provide accredited degrees from Canadian universities.