Prime Minister Narendra Modi's drop-by diplomacy in Lahore has set a new paradigm in summitry: doing away with sherpas. It is designed to catalyse the peace process, grounded over ego and who sets the agenda. 

The link between the business of diplomacy and the diplomacy of business is as old as the link between trade and flag. More recent diplomatic history is replete with examples of businessmen building bridges between leaders of adversarial nations.[...] business has helped oil the wheels of diplomacy, just as diplomacy seeks to oil those of commerce.

“Among the decisions taken was that ties between the two countries and people-to-people contacts would be strengthened so that the atmosphere can be created in which the peace process can move forward.” [...] The two leaders called for ‘innovative diplomacy’ to resolve the thorny issues between their countries, said a Prime Minister House official, who remained with Nawaz throughout Friday. 

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi was welcomed at the Russian Exhibition Centre ahead of his address at the Friends of India conclave with Sanskrit shlokas by a local singer on Thursday, it signalled that the two sides were keen to push soft diplomacy. 

Terming Prime Minister Narendra Modi's sudden stopover at Lahore to greet his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on his birthday as innovative diplomacy, home minister Rajnath Singh said: "It is our Indian culture that for the first time during swearing in of the new government, head of states of various countries were invited."

Public broadcaster Prasar Bharati and top Russian pay-tv programmer Digital Television Russia (DTR) have inked a pact for joint production and exchange of TV programs and related services. [...] This alliance will focus on high-quality production, marketing and distribution of content related to art, culture, trade & science, research and technology among others, it said.

In India, Japan may have found an appropriate strategic partner in Asia so as to work towards stability in the region. The two key elements of the new Indo-Japan strategic partnership are civil nuclear cooperation and that in defence [sic]. 

The fourth new project will support the stepping up of EU engagement in China through people-to-people contacts: EU Policy and Outreach Partnership in China (€1.8 million) is a Public Diplomacy tool which aims at giving the EU a stronger voice and at reinforcing its capacity to engage with local publics and stakeholders.