Turkish municipalities are developing sister city relations with their counterparts in Balkans, as the two sides aim to boost economic, cultural, educational and people-to-people contacts to foster mutual understanding and co-operation.

An agreement has been reached between Nepal and China to establish a Chinese Cultural Center in Nepal. Secretary at the Ministry of Cultural, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Yagya Prasad Gautam and Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Yang Houlan on Thursday signed the agreement at the Ministry.

Georgia is intended to restore its trade and cultural ties with Russia in the near future, new Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili told reporters.He emphasized that it was very important for Georgia to establish relations with its “Great Neighbor”.

The US Department of State and the Association of American Voices is facilitating a unique musical program called American Music Abroad. The program works to implement Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s vision of “smart power”diplomacy

Think of Vladimir Putin’s Russia and soft power does not immediately spring to mind. But the Kremlin has resolved to change the country’s image when thousands of tourists flock to the Black Sea resort of Sochi to watch the 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

"Good use of soft power objectively helps us reach priorities in international activities," Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told a meeting of the Public Chamber's Council for International Cooperation and Public Diplomacy.

When China embraced the world with its opening-up policy and extraordinary economic growth, the Awakening Dragon had embarked on a golden journey to transform itself, from being labor-intensive to being knowledge-intensive, from rising dependently on the growth of hard power to a full-blown renaissance of soft power, from the crude, cut-price "Made in China" to an imaginably refined, top-notch "Created in China".

“Good use of soft power objectively helps us reach priorities in international activities,” Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told a meeting of the Public Chamber’s Council for International Cooperation and Public Diplomacy. Among Russian soft power tools, Gatilov listed the extension of cultural, informational and humanitarian presence abroad.