Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel was on a whirlwind trip to Brazil on Thursday to cement trade ties with South America's biggest economy. She also used the occasion to urge Brazil to take the necessary steps to protect the Amazon rainforest, calling the country "key" to controlling global climate change.

Britain’s foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, will formally reopen the UK embassy in Tehran on Sunday, nearly four years after it was shut down as a result of a mob attack.The Iranian embassy in London will be reopened at the same time, as part of a rapid warming of relations between Iran and the west following the agreement reached on 14 July on the future of the Iranian nuclear

Afghanistan has summoned Pakistan's ambassador to explain fighting between the two countries' security forces that killed up to eight Afghan border police, the latest blow in ties that took a plunge this month during a surging Taliban offensive. Pakistan has condemned the recent attacks and blamed "spoilers and detractors" for trying to create mistrust between the two countries.

Commentators have largely overlooked the important role Latin American diplomacy played in pushing Washington to change its fifty-six-year-old policy. This is a mistake, because Latin America’s role in influencing U.S.-Cuban relations holds larger implications for how the United States views diplomatic opposition from Latin America and elsewhere. 

ASEAN members are focusing on important emerging issues in the region and have opted to approach them using soft diplomacy, with soccer as one of their tools. 

A joint statement, issued after talks between PM Modi and UAE Crown Prince, asked countries to abandon the use of terrorism against others and dismantle terror infrastructures on their soil. 

U.S. Marines raised the Stars and Stripes over the newly reopened American Embassy in Cuba on Friday as Secretary of State John Kerry made an unprecedented nationally broadcast call for democratic change on the island ruled by a single party for more than five decades.