China watchers have been combing through the details of the new initiatives and proposals Xi has recently introduced, such as “One Belt, One Road” (1B1R) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Even though these new initiatives are still under construction, the fact is that this has been the biggest foreign policy shift in Beijing since 1989. The bigger question here is, what is the grand strategy behind Xi’s plans?

The BBC warned the UK government in its Future of News report that it might soon be unable to compete with state-supported foreign rivals, including Russia’s RT, China's CCTV and Qatar's Al-Jazeera, in terms of global news presence, if its huge budget cuts are not reversed.

As India celebrated its 66th Republic Day with much fanfare in the presence of US President Barack Obama, it has diligently, over the years, turned the parade that was initially envisaged as a platform to demonstrate military might into one that exhibits its soft power to the world.

With budgets so squeezed, neither party cares to tout its gilt-edged record on foreign aid. But they should be proud of what we give, and have the courage to say so.

The BBC has warned the government that its global news presence will end up marginalised by overseas rivals such as Russia Today and al-Jazeera unless multimillion-pound cuts are reversed.