Despite the politics of the last decades, baseball clearly played a very crucial role in shaping up and strengthening the common bonds between the US and Cuba separated by only 90 miles. The recently announced restoration of diplomatic relations between the two countries marks the start of a new era for the two peoples. 

On the first Friday of each month The Interpreter will publish Digital Diplomacy links instead of the weekly Digital Asia links. As Australian digital diplomacy strives to catch up to the rest of the world, these links will highlight the most creative and effective ways countries are leveraging the internet for foreign policy gain.

Nepal’s beleaguered citizens are struggling to recover from the April 25 magnitude-7.8 earthquake that claimed more than 8,600 lives, caused countless injuries and left many thousands missing. But a United States Agency for International Development official said broader collaboration continues concurrently with U.S. Pacific Command on regional priorities including disaster preparedness, nontraditional regional threats, such as resource insecurity; climate change, pandemic issues and environmental considerations.

Interestingly, the ‘Himalayan tragedy’ provided India with a readymade opportunity to score brownie points over its main rival and neighbour China on aid diplomacy and the Narendra Modi administration grabbed the opportunity with both hands. Although China had overtaken India as Nepal’s largest foreign investor in 2014, Beijing failed to catch up with New Delhi’s humanitarian diplomacy on this occasion.

The UK government’s humanitarian response package for the Nepal earthquake now stands at £22.8 million, following a contribution to the United Nations’ emergency appeal, International Development Secretary Justine Greening announced today. Britain has released a new £5.3 million support package to the UN following their ‘Flash Appeal’ to provide additional help to people affected by the devastating 7.8 magnitude Nepal earthquake. 

The UN's humanitarian chief has said she is "extremely concerned" that Nepal's customs authorities are slowing the delivery of earthquake aid, as the death toll from the disaster crossed 7,000 on Sunday. After the government ruled out finding more survivors buried in the ruins of the capital Kathmandu, the focus was shifting to delivering aid to families and others in far-flung areas of the devastated nation

China and India competed to send aid after Nepal's devastating earthquake. Experts discuss whether the strategy was a boon for China's image there.

As one of quake-stricken Nepal’s closest neighbours—sharing a common frontier with road and air connectivity, open borders that do not require visas, besides cultural, language and other commonalities between the two, India was perhaps the best placed to offer succour to Nepal.