Porto renews twinning agreement with the Japanese city of Nagasaki

The Mayor of Porto and his counterpart from Nagasaki (Japan), Suzuki Shiro, signed, last Thursday, in the municipality of the Japanese city, the agreement to renew the ties of friendship and cooperation that unites the two cities, since 1978. "Our presence in Nagasaki serves to reaffirm the principles of the 1978 twinning agreement. Principles that are based on mutual respect and the sharing of values such as peace, freedom, democracy, and humanism", said Rui Moreira during the ceremony.

After being received in Tokyo at the Japanese parliament (Diet Building) by the former defence minister and current deputy of parliament and member of the Japan-Portugal Parliamentary Friendship Group, Tomomi Inada, and later by Portugal's ambassador to Japan, Vitor Sereno, at the renewed Portuguese chancellery, Rui Moreira, accompanied by his chief of staff, Vasco Ribeiro, travelled to Nagasaki.

He was invited by the former Mayor of the city, Tomihisa Taue, for a complimentary dinner in a typical Japanese restaurant. It addressed some of the issues related to both cities and the work carried out to date, under the twinning agreement, signed in May 1978, and renewed this Thursday in a public ceremony. Tomihisa Taue walked with the Mayor through the streets of Nagasaki and showed him some of his most interesting points.

At the time of signing the agreement, Rui Moreira stressed the importance of this twinning, the second that Porto has done with a friendly city abroad, to emphasize that "geographical distance does not weaken the historical, cultural and affective ties that unite Porto and Nagasaki. We are indeed twin cities. Cities that understand and appreciate each other. Cities that see themselves in the same values and share the same causes. Cities linked by the common ambition to contribute to a more prosperous, more peaceful, more sustainable, and more inclusive world”.

"Our assessment of these 45 years of twinning is clearly positive. Since 1978, there has been a growing compromise between the cities of Porto and Nagasaki", said Rui Moreira, giving as an example of this "fruitful dynamic", the cultural exchange, institutional cooperation and sharing of ideas, experiences, and projects in different areas.

"Now, our cities want to be at the forefront of globalization again", said the Mayor of Porto, adding: "We must be able to develop our cooperation in areas that are decisive for the globalization of the 21st century, such as trade, mobility, tourism, science, technology and innovation".

Before the Mayor of Porto, the Mayor of Nagasaki, Suzuki Shiro, spoke, highlighting the importance of twinning for the peoples of the two cities. At the end of the ceremony, Rui Moreira and Suzuki Shiro exchanged some gifts.

45 years of joint initiatives

The twinning agreement between Porto and Nagasaki was signed on May 26, 1978, by the then presidents of both cities, Aureliano Veloso and Yoshitake Morotani. Over the years, there have been many joint initiatives carried out between the two municipalities.

For example, in the context of the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the twinning, in 2018, the exhibition "Atomic Bomb - Hiroshima and Nagasaki" was displayed in Porto. At the time, the director of the National Peace Memory Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims, Tomoo Kurokawa, and the then mayor of Nagasaki, Tomihisa Taue, visited the city and were received at the Town Hall by the Mayor.

This exhibition was displayed in the atrium of Paços do Concelho, and was organized by the National Peace Memory Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims, with the collaboration of the Municipality of Porto.

This year, in June, a delegation from Nagasaki, led by the governor of Nagasaki province, Oishi Kengo, visited the ongoing work on the Municipal Slaughterhouse, designed by architect Kengo Kuma. This visit was part of the celebrations of the 480th anniversary of the arrival of the Portuguese in Japan. Oishi Kengo accompanied the ambassador of Portugal to Japan, Vítor Sereno, and of Japan to Portugal, Ota Makoto.

Still the result of this twinning, the Municipality of Porto is a member of the World Conference of Mayors for Peace, through Inter-City Solidarity, promoted by the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

The actions under this twinning also include support for Nagasaki's work with the "Mayors for Peace" network, which develops actions to raise awareness of the end of nuclear weapons in the world.