UK immigration strategy is is costing the country its share in the valuable international student market, a new all-party parliamentary group has said. [...] The inaugural meeting heard Canada had overtaken the UK last year as a destination for international undergraduates, while Australia was projected to do so in little over a decade.

China’s transformation over the past 30 years from an insular, agricultural country to a global manufacturing powerhouse could only be maintained through the development of new high-value industries and the building of critical infrastructure. But the necessary know-how to achieve this was in the hands of international companies.

 However, India’s larger objective is to woo its neighbors through soft diplomacy. The Indian government has formulated a grand plan to promote tourism in places which are part of its "Buddhist Circuit." Accordingly, all of the relevant sites will have airports so that visitors will be able to travel between them with relative ease. 

The UK’s former minister of universities and science, David Willetts, has said outbound student mobility is essential to the country’s soft power agenda. Speaking at the International Unit’s Go International event this week, Willetts said two-way mobility programmes facilitate negotiations with overseas partners.

At the very private lunch that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had for the visiting Duke and Duchess of Cambridge earlier this month, the cuisine had an “Anglo Indian touch”. This deviation from the tried and tested official menus that generally feature cream of almond soup and insipid north Indian curries and kebabs was certainly welcome. But more interesting was the attempt to reach out to the guests via food.

During the Ming dynasty, [...] More than six centuries later, Xi Jinping, China’s president, launched a new maritime strategy explicitly drawing on Zheng’s legacy: the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. The Maritime Silk Road is one part of a larger project, the One Belt, One Road (OBOR), which aims to connect China with Europe by land and sea. 

A pair of Chinese giant pandas that arrived here last month as part of a joint research project were officially unveiled to the public on April 21 at the country’s largest amusement park south of Seoul. After some 50 days of allowing the animals to get used to their new environment, Samsung Everland in Yongin, about 50 kilometers south of Seoul, held an opening ceremony for “Panda World” and showed the pandas to the public.

From the earliest moments of Barack Obama’s candidacy for president, there was an interesting debate about whether he would enhance America’s soft power in the world or not. Over the past eight years there have certainly been some data points that offer evidence of Obama’s soft power — but there has also been a legitimate debate about whether it means all that much for American foreign policy.