“Culture is an axis of diplomacy that was practiced by any number of autocratic regimes, Hitler as well as Stalin,” said Lorraine de Meaux...
Russian officials have even suggested that Mr. Depardieu’s flight toward Russia’s flat income tax rate of 13 percent may start a trend. “The distinctiveness of our tax system is poorly known about in the West,” a deputy prime minister, Dmitri O. Rogozin, wrote...

Strapped for cash, the US State Department is increasingly reaching out to private companies to help fund programs that bring Middle Eastern visitors to the US, seek to counter negative impressions of the US and promote economic development in the region.

The program, a public-private partnership established by John F. Kennedy in 1963, has been sending artists and their works to U.S. missions across the globe as part of an initiative to foster U.S. public diplomacy through art.

The government is set to approve plans for a "soft power" campaign ordered by President Vladimir Putin last July to improve Russia's image abroad, a news report said Wednesday. The official plan for the project covers 2013-2015 and involves a range of cultural initiatives and events for humanitarian cooperation, Kommersant reported, citing a copy of the plan.

Vice President Hamid Ansari has announced here that India plans to open a cultural centre in the Vietnamese capital this year to promote interchange of ideas and greater interaction between the people of the two nations. “We wish to bring together the exchange of ideas and culture, with a contemporary face, to our ancient bonds of friendship. To facilitate these ties and promote people-to people contacts, we plan to open the Indian cultural centre in Hanoi this year.”

Students of the Excelsior High School in Kingston yesterday engaged their peers from the Samuel W Shaw School in Calgary, Canada, in a friendly debate on ethical food... The debate took place via a live videoconferencing link connecting students of both schools. The schools are part of an exciting cultural exchange programme with students in Canada as a result of an International School Twinning Initiative (ISTI) spearheaded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

Bringing students together from across the globe, the 12th edition of International Children's Festival of Performing Arts (ICFPC) was initiated at Ryan International School, Ludhiana, on Tuesday. As a part of the Russian cultural exchange programme, around 18 students from Russia came to India under the theme "One World of Children" and participated in a month-long festival.

Table tennis has helped connect China and the United States since 1971, when the US team's visit to Beijing sparked a thaw in relations. The sport is poised to play a similar role again, as Dubai announced on Monday it will sponsor the Chinese national team as part of an effort to promote exchange and growth between the two nations."This will be the first time the Chinese national table tennis team has cooperated with a foreign partner."