As an autonomous entity within the government, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) is responsible for promoting India's cultural exchanges with other countries. In the past three decades, the ICCR has organized a number of India festivals across the world.

New USCCD member organization Global Citizen Year (GCY) defines itself as a citizen diplomacy organization by providing recent high school graduates with the opportunity to spend a 'bridge year' working in a developing country before they move on to attend college.

Now, 50 years on, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin is set to be honoured with a statue on London's Mall. The monument - which will be the first of a Soviet-era Russian in the capital - is due to be unveiled in July, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Gagarin's historic visit to Britain three months after his space mission.

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd will today launch a photographic exhibition, Through Australian Eyes, which recognises the significant contribution of Australian civilians working in Afghanistan. Mr. Rudd welcomes the exhibition, which emphasises the important role development assistance and diplomacy plays in the rebuilding of Afghanistan and the security gains being made in Afghanistan.

As part of the "Days of Culture of the Islamic Republic of Iran," a 120-person Iranian delegation headed by Culture and Islamic Guidance Minister Seyed Mohammad Hosseini is in Dushanbe and will travel later to the northern city of Khujand.

It's been a very patriotic period for Irish Ambassador Breifne O’Reilly. Aside from the St. Patrick’s Day reception he hosted at his residence in Herzliya Pituah last Thursday, the previous week he hosted another reception at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque to mark the opening of the annual Irish Film Week...

During recent testimony in front of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee Secretary of State Clinton made a splash when she commented, "I remember having an Afghan general tell me that the only thing he thought about Americans is that all the men wrestled and the women walked around in bikinis because the only TV he ever saw was Baywatch and World Wide Wrestling.” She went on to comment about the effect American media has on the image of the U.S. abroad.

The European Parliament's culture committee last week asked the European Commission to strengthen the role of culture in the EU's external policy, asking EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to appoint an EU 'cultural ambassador'.