A hundred years later, dance is being used as a bridge over the century-old abyss between Turks and Armenians. DanceMotion USA, a cultural diplomacy initiative sponsored by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and produced by BAM, facilitated a contemporary dance collaboration among artists from the three nations.

Hard-headed bean counters are busy auditing the economic gains of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Japan but the PM seems to have shrewdly used "soft power" symbolism to boost the profile of a visit billed as a major international engagement. 

The statement came from the head of the cultural center of the Iranian embassy in Azerbaijan Ibrahim Ibrahimi speaking at the press conference in Baku. According to Ibrahimi, they put forward a proposal for joint action of national orchestras of Iran and Azerbaijan in both countries as well as in other countries. "I hope that in this connection the contract will be signed by the end of the year", he said. 

Authorities haven't given a reason for those moves. But they come as Chinese leaders try to tighten regulation of information circulating via chat apps and on Internet sites. As well, China is seeking to build its own culture of television, movies and animation to counter what it sees as the soft-power influence of the U.S. In a government report released in March, Chinese government planners called on officials to "quicken development of public cultural undertakings including the press and publishing, radio and television, and literature and art as well as the culture industry."

When political leaders and diplomats from different countries struggle to communicate in a cultured way, it is the artists, poets and museum curators who may bring sanity back to international relations. There is no shortage of cultural bodies, grass roots and state sponsored, that are working to keep up the dialogue between Russia and Britain.

It is time India asserted itself on the international stage in the areas of contemporary art and the other diverse realms that constitute the notion of culture to make a strong statement as a ‘soft power’. This is something that the Western world has brought into play as an important artery of foreign as well as domestic policy to project humane dimensions and to generate pride and confidence in the people.