In cooperation with Fredrikstad municipality in Norway, the Hong Kong based Theatre Studio and the Norwegian theatre lab Studium Actoris have initiated a three-year long cultural exchange program which is to culminate in a theatre production celebrating the 150 years jubilee of Norway and China’s most famous painters, Edward Munch and Qi Bashi.

India has found a new gateway to project its Africa diplomacy as it explores a partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which is engaged in a range of activities in the emerging continent. This possibility of collaborating in Africa emerged from talks between External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and Microsoft founder Bill Gates here Thursday.

Confronted with the shortcomings of international political processes many scholars and diplomats have frequently turned to the non-governmental sphere in search of more practical action on global challenges. It is not uncommon to find today calls for global civil society engagement, public-private partnerships, and citizen diplomacy in almost all contexts of international relations.

As people in Santa Lucija, a village in the small island nation of Malta, look forward to its annual Chinese Film Festival this summer, the China Cultural Center in Malta has pledged to organize more cultural events this year to mark the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Santa Lucija, the only Maltese village with a partnership with Jinchang district of Suzhou city in east China, began to offer its citizens a feast for their eyes in 2007 when it organized a Chinese film festival at the end of the summer.

Speaker of the National Assembly Dr Fehmida Mirza and the visiting US Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Tara Sonenshine joined by US Ambassador Cameron Munter Wednesday. inaugurated the Pakistan Institute for Parliamentary Service (PIPS) here.

Most of the YES Academy took place at Chulalongkorn University in central Bangkok including strings and orchestra, piano, dance, hip hop and the Broadway program. Thankfully, the U.S. Department of State is still budgeting for this kind of cultural diplomacy to demonstrate what we all have in common and how we can all learn to work together.

During her visit, Under Secretary Sonenshine will engage with civil society and emphasize people-to-people ties shared between the United States and Pakistan. She will meet with young Pakistani entrepreneurs and female students to discuss the shared goal of empowerment and to discuss ways to unlock their full potential.

As public diplomacy expanded in scope and focus, an ambassador's outreach role also expanded. Besides keeping in touch with various organs of the host government, he found it important to have friendly relations with the local media. He also understood that it was critical to be accepted by the political, intellectual and cultural community of the host country.