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. 

“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. 

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."

Speaking at a conference chaired by Senator Sherry Rehman titled ‘The Road to 2016: Negotiating Deadlock and Diplomacy with India and Afghanistan’, participants discussed Jinnah Institute’s Track II diplomacy efforts for building sustained channels of bilateral and multilateral engagements and for offering alternative recommendations on regional policy issues.

What TDAP was striving to do, besides the sale and orders that it was targeting, was to showcase Pakistan's distinctive characteristics, to forge our reputation in a manner that fired the consumers imagination, stirred the emotions and captured the essence of what made our country truly unique. The catchy logo "Aalishan Pakistan" encapsulated the magnificence of our land and the show took Delhi by storm.

So when the Ministry of External Affairs offered an opportunity to express her views on the subject, she suggested a number of measures to improve India's ties with its neighbors, including through "youth ambassadors".
 

With an eye on giving impetus to neighborhood first policy amid thaw in ties with Pakistan, India will host South Asian Games (SAG) in Guwahati and Shillong from Feb 6-16 2016. Delhi hopes that the Games will enhance people-to-people and youth links among eight South Asian countries in the spirit of Modi government's importance to neighboring states. 
 

Pakistan is participating in the 742nd commemoration ceremonies of the death of Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi being held in Konya from 7-17 December 2015. Twenty paintings made by Pakistan’s renowned artist, Mr. Shafique Farooqi, representing Sufism as seen and depicted through the intellect of Mevlana Rumi are on display in the Mevlana Cultural Centre of Konya until 17 December.