Saint Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, Rome, Italy. (Photo: VCG)

“Diplomacy of art.”

That will be a reality next spring when the Vatican Museums and the Palace Museum engage in an art exchange and simultaneous exhibits.

Vatican Museums Director Barbara Jatta said the event would help foster healthy relations between the two countries through the “diplomacy of art,” harkening back to the days of “ping-pong diplomacy” between China and the US in the early 1970’s.

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lu Kang reiterated at a press conference last week China’s willingness to continue its healthy dialogue with the Vatican as relations between the two sides advance.

The Vatican and a Beijing-based fund have been working to organize joint art exhibitions which will take place simultaneously in the Vatican Museums and in China's Forbidden City in the spring of 2018. The two sides will lend each other 40 works of art from their collections.

Since 2013, when Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pope Francis were elected heads of their respective countries, China-Vatican ties have achieved several breakthroughs. 

Coincidently, the leader of the largest developing nation and the leader of the world’s smallest country were elected almost on the same day. Xi was elected Chinese President by the 12th National People's Congress on March 14, 2013, hours after Pope Francis was elected by the papal conclave.

Media reported that the two leaders congratulated each other through letters shortly afterwards. It’s believed to be the first time since 1951 that the leaders of both countries have communicated with one another.

During his visit to South Korea three years ago, Pope Francis was allowed by Chinese officials to fly over China. Months later, China opened its airspace again to the Catholic leader on his way home from the Philippines.  And while speaking to journalists on his flight, the pope said he would like to visit China “tomorrow.”

In February 2016, Pope Francis sent Beijing Chinese Spring Festival greetings. During an interview, he praised China as a country with a “great history of wisdom.” “The world looks to this great wisdom of yours.”The Pope said to Xi. 

And in another example of burgeoning ties, the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences invited, for the first time, a Chinese delegation earlier this year to participate in its Summit on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism.

From the congratulatory letters to the forthcoming “diplomacy of art,” the iceberg that once existed between China and the Vatican has thawed, turning into a river connecting the two nations. The burgeoning relationship is yet another example of how a win-win strategy is China’s ultimate goal.