Beijing has unveiled a basket of initiatives to deepen economic, cultural and social exchanges across the Taiwan Strait, following a high-profile meeting last week between President Xi Jinping and Wu Poh-hsiung, the honorary chairman of Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang.

The realm of social media and the power of the Internet lies in the hands of the people. Together they are a tool that allow greater access to information, global connectivity, a platform for speeches, advocacy and political statements, tools for video and photo dissemination and much more. The Internet, in many parts of the world, is free and open to the public, which allows for the rapid growth of people-to-people diplomacy across national borders, and has a democratizing effect on information. It has also created the space for the tech boom in which the giants of Silicon Valley thrive.

Harsh international sanctions against Iran are pointless and even counterproductive, members of the Iran Project argued this week in a new report.

After taking office, Chinese President Xi Jinping chose Russia for his first stop abroad, met with his counterpart Vladimir Putin and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, and signed a series of treaties. This demonstrates the close strategic relations the two countries enjoy.

The minister of foreign affairs has made the diplomatic economy a top priority of his action. This is why the new Directorate for Businesses and Global Economy has been created, as of March 1, 2013. This directorate will be the first point of contact at the ministry for businesses – for large groups as well as SMEs. It will also ensure that their interests are properly taken into account in negotiations that are likely to impact their activities, in particular with respect to issues relating to global economic regulation.

The conference, which is to be held from June 16 to 19 at the Montego Bay Conference Centre in St. James, seeks to bring together members of the Jamaican Diaspora for discussions, aimed at forming alliances which will stimulate investment in various sectors.

Is the United States finally — after fifty years of constant disappointment — on the verge of blasting open the Japanese market? The Washington Post seems to think so. Under the headline, “Japan’s economic turmoil may provide an opening for the U.S.,” the Post’s Tokyo correspondent Howard Schneider recently commented that Japan was being propelled toward free-trade negotiations with the United States.

For the past few years, as China’s emergence has cast an increasing shadow over the region, Canberra’s strategic thinkers have tried to interest New Delhi in the concept of the “Indo-Pacific” as the two former colonies of Britain, now two leading democracies, find common ground.