The US plans to expand its diplomatic and public diplomacy platform in the Asia-Pacific region, with an additional $US25.9 million ($NZ31.44m) for programme and supporting costs.

The government is considering posting dedicated cultural attaches at South Africa's missions abroad, Arts and Culture Minister Paul Mashatile said on Thursday. “Culture has now become the soft power of nations,” Mashatile said in his budget vote speech in the National Assembly, before detailing cultural exchanges with France and Britain.

Behind the excitement is the sense that the Pacific Alliance is a hard-nosed business deal, rather than the usual gassy rhetoric of Latin American summitry. Under the leftist governments that rule in much of South America, there has been plenty of talk of regional integration, but precious little practice of it.

Enhancing cooperation between Chinese culture and different cultures and civilizations of the world is important for mutual understanding and learning, as well as the maintenance of world peace and harmony, she said.

The Foreign Ministry told APA that during the meeting Elman Abdullayev briefed his counterpart about Azerbaijan's foreign policy, humanitarian projects that it carries out and the main directions of its public diplomacy…Azerbaijan and Egypt can also cooperate on common objectives of the public diplomacy.

This month, the Brazilian government announced plans to employ some 6,000 Cuban doctors as part of an effort to strengthen Brazil-Cuba bilateral ties. In an email interview, John M. Kirk, a professor at Canada’s Dalhousie University...explained the history of Cuba’s medical diplomacy and its importance to Cuba’s slowly reforming economy.

The United States is looking to triple the number of Americans going to India for higher studies in the next five years...“That is still far from our goal of 15,000 in five years,” Tara Sonenshine, the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, told the visiting Human Resources and Development Minister in a roundtable earlier this week.

For the past 12 years, volunteers with International Cultural Exchange have provided an opportunity for visiting college students from around the world to become better acclimated in America and Houston...Most of the activities put on by International Cultural Exchange volunteers take place during the academic year, and LSCS students have the chance to attend sports games in Houston or dinners with local volunteers.