The Nationals have expressed interest to MLB about playing the Cuban national team, while the country’s baseball commissioner has openly welcomed the Nationals to play in Havana next spring. [...] Baker feels the baseball team in the nation’s capital would carry extra significance, especially with thawing relations between the two countries.

Sport and cultural exchanges between countries and individuals “who are not on the best of terms” could help ease tensions, Spavor said in an interview. “At the very least, the involved individuals … can break down or dismiss preconceived negative ideas about each other.”

Australia’s noted ultra-marathon athlete and former politician Pat Farmer (53) will reach the city next week and run for 40 km here. [...] Dubbed as ‘public-diplomacy initiative’ to promote India-Australia relations, the event was started on January 26, when India celebrates Republic Day and Australia its National Day. 

When Afghanistan's national women’s soccer team takes the field in the near future, the players will be decked in a uniform that marks both their country’s deep-seated history and how far it has come. Just two years after FIFA gave the green light on head covers, sportswear company Hummel unveiled the newest iteration of the Afghani national team jersey on Tuesday, which now features a hijab.

“Sport is among the priorities of the public diplomacy arena [...] Iranian Ambassador to Malaysia Marziyeh Afkham said during a banquet with the Iranian ping pong players at the Iranian Embassy on Saturday. “Sport provides a quick path to understanding the world, and helps the establishment of strong friendship as well as close bonds among nations,” she said.

The wave of huge spending is China's latest step in its bid to become a global soccer power. With the backing of President Xi Jinping, an avowed soccer fan, and no shortage of investment money, the country has the political will and naked ambition to propel soccer into a starring role on the world stage.

Other sports have created global appeal before. The NFL, for one, has been playing regular-season games before sold-out crowds in London since 2007. [...] But Ranadive envisions basketball as the world sport of the 21st century, calling his globalization plan “NBA 3.0."

French Minister of Urban Affairs, Youth and Sport Patrick Kanner, visited Seoul in mid-February to bolster cooperation for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games in Korea. Kanner, who was accompanied by a delegation of French companies [...] met Korean athletes and sports institutions in tennis, taekwondo and mountain climbing during a reception at the French Embassy in Seoul on Feb. 19.