According to Joseph Nye, the American political thinker who developed the concept of soft power, American culture is one of the pillars of the US power structure and instrumental in the projection of that power. The Iranian leadership fears that normal relations will result in the expansion of trade and commerce and thus, suddenly, increase the number of Iranians visiting the US and vice versa.

Turkey’s Contemporary Silk Road Project and China’s project named ‘One Belt and One Road’, or the ‘Silk Road Economic Belt’ (SREB), are providing both sides with great opportunities.

Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has defended his decision to play golf in Hawaii with United States President Barack Obama at a time when his country was facing the worst flood in decades, calling it "golf diplomacy".

Beijing appointed a senior propaganda official as its culture minister yesterday, making him one of the spearheads of the government's drive to project China's soft power abroad.

"By promoting the development of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, China has injected a strong impetus to the common development in Eurasia," said Bogomolov, adding that member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization believed that China's development would bring hope for world peace and global development.

Russia appears striving to boost the demand for its language in North Korea, amid signs that the Cold War allies try to build up strong bilateral relations. Russia's Maritime Province of Siberia donated as many as 1,400 Russian books to North Korea, the Russian news agency Interfax said Wednesday. 

The visit ... would have taken the children to Arab towns in Israel, southern areas targeted by militants' rockets in the conflict, a mixed-race school and the beach in Tel Aviv.  But Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since 2007, said the cancellation was justified to protect children from "the politics of normalisation" with Israel.