quiet diplomacy

Izumi Nakamitsu took office as U.N. undersecretary general and high representative for disarmament affairs — the highest U.N. post dealing with disarmament affairs — on May 1. She is currently the highest-ranking Japanese official at the United Nations. In a recent interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun, Nakamitsu revealed her intention to “quietly” support discussions between member nations on reducing armaments.

Indonesia has decided that its foreign policy in 2017 will focus on intensifying interactions with other countries to protect the nation`s interests, security, ideological objectives, and economic prosperity. To this end, the country continues to participate in implementing world order based on freedom, lasting peace, and social justice. Creating a peaceful world is also one of the national goals outlined in the Preamble of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia.

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi stayed away this year, India followed a strategy of quiet diplomacy while projecting its soft power at the world body, even as it suffered a setback in the fight against terrorism. India had a low profile on the diplomatic front that masked a lot of behind-the-scenes diplomacy. After having made a trip to Washington to address the Congress, Modi did not attend the annual general debate of the General Assembly.

China’s actions in recent months have elicited growing concerns, not just from the US and Australia, but increasingly from across ASEAN. Singapore’s leaders have expressed disquiet about the deteriorating situation. Even Malaysia, which has historically preferred “quiet diplomacy” and been reluctant to criticise Chinese actions...

August 21, 2015

This week in public diplomacy news, headlines revealed how trust can both smooth and sharpen diplomatic divides. 

Venezuela's top diplomat in Washington said that after five months of quiet diplomacy, relations between the two adversaries were still tentative, with no real rapprochement yet after a decade of hostility.

Public diplomacy or grandstanding will limit the scope for quiet diplomacy...The full picture of Chen’s case comes to us in Susan Glasser’s Foreign Policy magazine cover profile of Clinton, at the very beginning and very end of the piece.

Canada and the United States enjoy the most placid and interdependent bilateral relationship in the world. And the norms and conventions of quiet diplomacy have, for the most part, ensured the smooth operation of a mutually beneficial partnership. Experience has taught policymakers on both sides of the 49th parallel that noisy political debates and belligerent statements by leaders tend to cause national positions to harden, making compromise difficult.