The University of Johannesburg is home to a centre that aims to build better relations between South Africa and China. According to the director of the Confucius Institute David Monyae, relations between the two countries are currently only conducted at a high level. The institute aims to boost relations “people to people”.

As part of “El Al Ambassadors – Blue and White Advocates,” a little-reported-on program in voluntary diplomacy, he is one of about 150 El Al pilots and flight attendants who speak to groups in cities around the world (wherever El Al flies) about their personal experiences and what Israel means to them.

The use of diplomacy in general and, in particular, to help create a global anti-terror coalition does not need to be demonstrated. Face-to-face diplomacy, at all levels, but above all in the Arab world, where personal relationships are culturally important is much less expensive than security operations, not to speak about the military ones, and it may substantially contribute to improve anti-terror cooperation. 

South Asian countries have been pushed many times by external powers to set aside their political grudges and strive for peace and prosperity in the region. [...] But rarely have external powers been motivated to try initiating people-to-people contact as an alternative path to regional unity and connectivity. People-to-people contact or “public diplomacy” remains the unfulfilled agenda of SAARC.

Sino-Kenya cooperation in education, arts and culture has blossomed as evidenced by establishment of four Confucius institutes in the country.  The Counselor of Chinese Embassy to Kenya Yao Ming said cultural diplomacy is a critical component of a comprehensive cooperative partnership endorsed by President Xi Jinping and his Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta in 2013. “People to people exchanges have thrived due to establishment of Confucius Institutes in four Kenyan Universities. Understanding Chinese language and culture is an eye opener to Kenyan youth,” Yao remarked.

Twenty young female American and Jordanian entrepreneurs have been selected to participate in a week-long cultural exchange and fellowship in Amman, Jordan through a not-for-profit partnership between Open Hands Initiative and the Women First Enterprise (WFE), a branch of the Angel Resource Institute (ARI). 

President Barack Obama met his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro, on Tuesday at the United Nations — all smiles after both renewed their calls for an end to the US trade embargo against Havana.[...] “The president also highlighted steps the United States intends to take to improve ties between the American and Cuban peoples, and reiterated our support for human rights in Cuba,” it said.