Professor Zhou Qingan, who teaches public diplomacy and global communications at Tsinghua University, said the Chinese public had high expectations of their leader's overseas trips. "The Chinese people hope that Xi will defend China's national interests during diplomatic occasions unswervingly, and [during the press briefing with President Obama], Xi did express himself in a frank manner,"

The forum will host President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, HE the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Ahmed bin Abdullah al-Mahmoud, former US ambassador to the United Nations Thomas Pickering, Egyptian Minister for International Co-operation and Development Amr Darrag, Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs undersecretary Tara Sonenshine and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation secretary-general Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, among others.

US Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Tara Sonenshine will travel to Qatar to attend the annual US-Islamic World Forum, the State Department announced in a statement on Friday.

Describing cultural appreciation as the key to lasting relations between nations, an eminent Pakistani scholar has called for initiatives in various fields of arts to help Pakistanis and Americans better understand each other. Dr. Zulfiqar Kazmi told a gathering on the Capitol Hill that the best way to promote friendly and cooperative relationship between the United States and Pakistan would be to build bridges through encouragement of more and more cultural exchange programs.

Online games featuring Chinese culture have become an important force for cultural exchange and cooperation as it spread through global markets, head of a leading Chinese online game maker told Xinhua. "We insist on creating game products of pure national originality, and take the online game industry as a new cultural carrier and a new cultural communication, " said Perfect World CEO Xiao Hong, who was attending a conference of Chinese and Mexican entrepreneurs here.

Qalibaf, who is the mayor of Tehran, also cited national solidarity, active regional diplomacy, economic diplomacy, public diplomacy, and prudent resistance as the most important tools for activating the country’s diplomacy on the global stage.

It is arguable that foreign aid and to a larger extent development policy, which includes not only Official Development Assistance but also people-to-people links, migration policy, trade policy and peacekeeping is a core part of our regional identity and a core component of our “soft power” in the Asian Century.

. Alternatively, the Obama administration could heed the recommendation of a recent Atlantic Council report by "[d]esignating a small number of US and private Iranian financial institutions as channels for payment for humanitarian, educational, and public diplomacy-related transactions carefully licensed by the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control."