ping pong diplomacy

“Sport is among the priorities of the public diplomacy arena [...] Iranian Ambassador to Malaysia Marziyeh Afkham said during a banquet with the Iranian ping pong players at the Iranian Embassy on Saturday. “Sport provides a quick path to understanding the world, and helps the establishment of strong friendship as well as close bonds among nations,” she said.

It wouldn't be senate estimates without senior Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials having to justify the presence of a $6300 ping-pong table in the 'InnovationXchange' ideas hub.[...]  "Senator you call it a ping pong table, I call it a meeting table," he said. "It is used all day for meeting and not for ping pong. It is actively used throughout the day and sits 10 or 12 people around it."

A different form of engagement with China – like through sports or cultural exchange – might help the Philippines resolve its maritime spat with the Asian giant, Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said yesterday.

2015 has been a productive year not only for China, but for its partners all over the world. The world's second largest economy reached out farther and wider, through initiatives such as the "Belt and Road" and the "AIIB". And President Xi Jinping led the way.

A new museum celebrating the history of American diplomacy is being built at the U.S. Department of State. The U.S. Diplomacy Center (USDC) will feature 238 years of American diplomatic history, as well as an education area for students interested in diplomatic careers.

Players as pawns in political games is not always a bad thing. Major League Baseball is about to visit Cuba on a "Goodwill" tour that marks the Dec 17 meeting last year between Barack Obama and Raul Castro when the two presidents agreed to start to "normalise" the relationship between the countries.

The "ping-pong diplomacy" was on display again - this time at Beijing's Poly Theater, where players and musicians from both countries gathered on Thursday to perform a show cheering Sino-U.S. exchanges of the early 1970s. 

The first official visit since the 1950s to what was then a closed, even secretive Communist country, the tournament remembered as “Ping-Pong diplomacy” changed the course of history. It broke China’s deeply hostile relationship with the United States, and led to the momentous visit by President Richard Nixon the following year.

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