Busan City Signs Sister City Agreement with Belize City, Belize

Signing Ceremony in Belize City, Belize's Largest City, at 6:30 PM on the 31st

Mayor Park Hyung-jun and Mayor Bernard Wagner of Belize City Attend and Sign

On July 31 at 6:30 PM, Busan City signed a sister city cooperation agreement with Belize City, the largest city of Belize.

Busan Mayor Park Hyung-jun signing a sister city cooperation agreement with Belize City.

At the signing ceremony, Busan Mayor Park Hyung-joon and Belize City Mayor Bernard Wagner attended and personally signed the agreement.

This sister city cooperation agreement is a follow-up measure to the discussions held during the bilateral meeting between the Prime Minister of Belize and Busan Mayor Park Hyung-joon in May.

Mayor Park Hyung-joon had an in-depth discussion on ways to enhance practical cooperation with Busan during a bilateral meeting with Belize Prime Minister John Antonio Brice?o, who delivered the keynote speech at the Leaders Summit of the World Climate Industry EXPO held in Busan last May. This sister city cooperation agreement is the fruition of those efforts.

Belize City is the largest city in Belize and the center of the country's economy and culture.

Korea established diplomatic relations with Belize in 1987 and has maintained exchanges for 36 years, signing administrative agreements in various fields.

Belize City is rich in natural resources such as coral reefs and possesses the largest Barrier Reef in the Northern Hemisphere.

The signing of the sister city cooperation agreement with Belize City is significant as it expands urban diplomacy with countries in the Central American Caribbean region.

Busan currently has a total of 47 sister and friendship cities, with four located in the Latin American region. This is the first time Busan has formed a partnership with a city from a country belonging to the Caribbean Community, a regional organization of the Central American Caribbean area.

The sister cities include Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Tijuana (Mexico), and Valpara?so (Chile), while the friendship city is Panama City (Panama).

The Caribbean Community is a regional organization of Caribbean coastal countries, established in 1973 to coordinate economic development and foreign policies among member states and to protect the common interests of Caribbean countries in response to regional integration efforts such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

It was launched in 1973 by 14 Caribbean countries including Barbados, Grenada, Jamaica, and Suriname, aiming to form a common market, coordinate foreign policies, and strengthen cooperation in areas such as health, education, fisheries, and information.

With this agreement, the two cities will share a vision for the future based on commonalities in marine affairs, environment, tourism, and human exchanges, and will begin practical exchanges and cooperation in various fields.

In particular, Belize City is highly interested in overcoming the climate crisis through cooperation with universities such as Korea Maritime and Ocean University, and plans to promote human exchange programs with Busan City through invited training for public officials and educational and research institutions.

The city plans to seek practical cooperation with Belize City and Belize by proposing mid- to long-term cooperation projects centered on the ‘Busan Initiative,’ an official development assistance (ODA) project linked to the 2030 Busan World Expo.

Busan City hopes that the signing of this sister city cooperation agreement with Belize City will serve as a positive signal not only for expanding urban diplomacy but also for securing friendly forces in the Latin American region for the bid to host the 2030 World Expo.

Belize City.

Mayor Park Hyung-joon stated, “The Latin American region has long maintained friendly relations with the Republic of Korea and is a key strategic area for the bid to host the 2030 Busan World Expo. Taking this opportunity of signing the sister city cooperation agreement with Belize City, Busan will play a role as a global city equipped with platform capabilities to jointly consider and discuss global issues such as climate change, and will develop together with cities around the world.” He added, “Going forward, we will actively continue sustainable exchange activities with Belize City in areas such as marine affairs, environment, tourism, human exchanges, economy, and culture.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.