trade

MOFA will follow up with a wide range of activities next year, such as sending performance groups on cultural diplomacy tours throughout the region, according to the director-general. 

Cultural diplomacy plays a vital role projecting a soft image of Pakistan globally and pave the way to explore new avenues to boost trade in UAE and Gulf region.

November 3, 2014

The Japanese defence ministry reports that in the first half of this year it has had to scramble jets more than 230 times in response to Chinese incursion into its airspace. Chinese and Japanese military aircraft have been flying dangerously close over these waters in recent months, sparking fears of a major international ­crisis should they collide.

The consequences of the Arctic ice melt extend far beyond shorter shipping lanes. The warmer Arctic waters are opening access to oil, gas and mineral deposits for an energy-craving global population and at the same time increasing possibilities for ecotourism. 

China's president, Xi Jinping, has paid visits to Russia, South Korea and Mongolia since February this year, visits that have "hit pressure points" that "cut right to the chase," according to Duowei News, an overseas Chinese news outlet. Zhang Jiuhuan, vice chair of the China Public Diplomacy Association, compared Xi's recent official foreign visits to hitting pressure points, or points on the energy channels of the body — in other words, they were "short, fast, rich in content and fruitful." 

Trade, facilitated by Beijing's deep public pockets, reciprocal visits by dignitaries, including Xi Jinping, and the estimated one million Chinese citizens who have made Africa home since 2001, soared to $200 billion last year, making China the continent's biggest trading partner. All of which has set off alarm bells in some Western quarters, with dark warnings about a new Scramble for Africa. Critics fret the United States - focused on the Middle East, the Asia-Pacific, the European Union and Russia - has made a strategic mistake.

Since the December 2012 inauguration of President Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexico has implemented a series of reforms that could forever change Mexican governance and its economy’s competitiveness.

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