Thanking trade counselors for their devoted efforts that have contributed to the growing of the Turkish economy, Erdoğan said these efforts were helping Turkey emerge as a soft power. “Soft power is now ahead of hard power. A country’s influence is no longer measured with its military power but with its economic and diplomatic power.”

India's strength does not lie with its nuclear weapons or its missiles or the size of its armed forces. India real strength lies with the IT, its culture, its civilization and its vibrant democracy. Today, India's soft power is everywhere, in every nook and corner of the world and you see India through its dance, through its music, though its food...

Unique Japan opens a window to rare Japanese cultures, suggesting understanding of Chinese culture is limited there, since, while the classical culture is well-preserved by the Japanese, they tend to know little about modern Chinese culture.

Producers and movie industry advocates visiting the Beijing International Film Festival’s first full day on Sunday from around the world joined their Chinese counterparts in a summit to slice and dice the potential perks and pitfalls of making movies together.

“When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them,” Confucius once said. Apparently, someone extremely powerful has taken the saying to heart, having decided that a 31-foot bronze statue of the ancient Chinese sage that was unveiled near Tiananmen Square four months ago did not belong on the nation’s most hallowed slice of real estate.

Football authorities, from Fifa to the FA, are keen to argue that the sport is a benign force, an agent of positive social transformation even. They portray football as the universal game for a global world, an instrument of soft power and peaceful diplomacy and a device for overcoming social divisions.

He also said that Taiwan was willing to increase the number of scholarships for outstanding students from allied nations hoping to complete their university education in Taiwan in either Mandarin Chinese or English. Meanwhile, President Ma Ying-jeou said Wednesday that soft power is the key to winning respect from other nations.

External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna is starting a three-day official visit to Nepal from 20 April 2011. His visit comes at a time when Nepal is passing through political and economic uncertainties. The deadline for the drafting of the constitution is drawing nearer and the exercise has to be completed within the next forty days.