In a meeting between President of the Children's Cultural Center of Serbia Olivera Ježina and Iranian Cultural Attaché in Belgrade Mahmoud Shalouei, the two officials inked an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which is supposed to pave the ground for promotion of cultural relations.

As Narendra Modi heads to Brazil for the BRICS Summit, Team Niti Central takes a look at India’s Soft Power in Latin America – the incredible popularity of Bollywood. A distant memory of a shared colonial past and a demographic dividend hungry for unbounded economic aspirations are not the only unifying factors between India and Latin America. India’s film industry is hugely popular in the region and has gone places where direct Indian diplomacy is perhaps yet to venture.

When you think about diplomacy and the U.S. State Department, you probably don’t think about jazz singers or pop idols. Yet cultural, and specifically musical diplomacy, is not a new phenomenon – way back in the 1950s Louis Armstrong was described as America’s most effective ambassador. What American diplomats could not do, the New York Times said, Armstrong and his jazz music managed to do.

At a time when Israel is continuously bombing the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, a 28-day film festival in Bangalore, jointly organised by the Israeli consulate, the Suchitra Film Society, and Bangalore Cultural Partners from Thursday to July 31, has raised the hackles of a section of the culturati across the country. They have taken to Facebook asking academia and culture circles to boycott and condemn this film festival. 

One way to the world’s heart is through its stomach. That’s the thinking behind Brand USA’s Discover America campaign. The agency has launched a tasty marketing campaign inviting tourists from all corners of the globe to experience America “one dish at a time.”

Cultural exchanges and cooperation between China and the Republic of Korea (ROK) are on the rise, as President Xi Jinping's visit to Seoul this week is sure to provide more impetus.  Korean TV and pop crossovers to China are proving more popular and socially significant than ever.

Culture can play a crucial role in diplomacy, according to the director general of the Centre for Fine Arts (Bozar) in Brussels. In an interview with New Europe, Paul Dujardin, who also serves as the centre’s artistic director, described culture as a “soft power”.

The wait is over and the WorldPride parade is underway in downtown Toronto.  Toronto has had an annual Pride parade for more than three decades, but this year, it’s an even bigger party than usual due to the fact that the city is hosting World Pride for the first time.