Establishing friendly relations among neighbouring cities

Supporting development of good neighbourly relations between cities

Description

Establishing friendly relations among neighbouring cities involves creating structured opportunities for regular communication, joint projects, and cultural exchanges to foster mutual understanding and cooperation. This strategy aims to resolve cross-border tensions, coordinate responses to shared challenges, and promote economic and social development. By building trust and collaborative networks, cities can address issues such as resource management, environmental concerns, and emergency preparedness more effectively, ensuring stability and prosperity for their communities.

Claim

Conventional thinking on policies regarding peace, security, and stability does not consider cities as viable actors. Yet, city governments are deemed the most representative of local communities, with the capacity, therefore, to establish dialogue and partnership with their counterparts, and to mobilize civil society around a shared cause. Dialogue, cooperation and partnership among cities present more promising grounds for prejudices to be overcome, existing misperceptions to be challenged, and fruitful practices to be carried out.