Sister Cities Initiative of Russian Volgograd and the British Coventry, addressed to the United Nations, received the support on the World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders, held October 1-4 in Rabat, Morocco.
The highest level event that brought together more than three thousand representatives of local and regional authorities - members of the World Organization "United Cities and Local Governments" (UCLG), had coincided with the centenary anniversary of the international municipal movement.
At the behest of the Federal Agency Rossotrudnichestvo and Eurasian section of UCLG, the city of Volgograd had the opportunity to speak at a meeting of the Executive Bureau. The purpose - to convey to the world a joint initiative of Volgograd and Coventry, addressed to the United Nations about declaring 2014 as “the year of the international twinning movement”.
"In 2014, the twinning movement celebrates its 70th anniversary. The earliest known town twinning was in 1944 between Stalingrad and Coventry. Adoption of UN resolution proclaiming 2014 the International Year of twinning movement will become an important step towards the development of the international legal personality of sister cities, put the foundation for the establishment of formal legal status and give a new impetus to the movement and the vector of development ", - said the Deputy of Head of Volgograd Irina Kareva during the meeting of the Executive Bureau.
Earlier, the proposal of Volgograd and Coventry was unanimously supported by the International Forum " Public diplomacy as a guarantor of stable development of cities in the 21st Century ", held in Volgograd, February 1, 2013 as part of the scientific-practical conference " The Battle of Stalingrad in the destiny of nations," dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Victory in the Battle of Stalingrad. The initiative received positive responses from the mayors of sister cities , as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation , with whom we are considering all related issues. Endorsement of the initiative of Volgograd and Coventry by the World Summit of Local and Regional leaders is another convincing result of consistent work on the development of Volgograd twinning movement.
According to the Mayor of Kazan, Co-President of UCLG Ilsur Metshin, such discussions are great opportunity for the exchange of experience between the representatives of the municipal authorities. "There is no perfect city which would be able to solve all the problems. Nevertheless, there are cities that solve certain issues more successfully. UCLG summit - is a good platform for the experience and practice exchange,"- he said.
Currently, initiative of Volgograd and Coventry has been included to the work plan of the UCLG: after the necessary approvals official document will be submitted to the executive committee of the UN General Assembly with the request for the inclusion this issue in the agenda of the General Assembly. In addition, Volgograd has received a proposal to introduce their representatives to the two leading bodies of UCLG - Committee of the City (folk) Diplomacy and Committee on Gender Equality. Thus the hero-city was given the honorary right to represent interests of Russian Federation on these issues in the largest international organization that units the municipalities of different countries.
10.10.2013