Why do we have sister cities?

The City of Melbourne has voted unanimously to suspended it’s sister city partnership with St Petersburg due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Established in 1989, St Petersburg is one of six sister cities that have been established with Melbourne. The others include:

• Osaka, Japan est. 1978
• Tianjin, China est. 1980
• Thessaloniki, Greece est. 1984
• Boston, United States est. 1985
• Milan, Italy est. 2004

But what’s the purpose of linking two cities on opposite sides of the world?

Gordon Allen, National Treasurer of Sister Cities Australia, told Tom Elliot they can have benefit to ratepayers as long as there is a “community” connection.

“They bring benefits that a lot of people perhaps don’t understand … cultural, economic, sporting exchanges between the communities,” he said on 3AW Drive.

“But I think Tom the critical factor is having local community support, within your Local Government Area, to help drive and recognise that sister city partnership, that’s critical.”

Melbourne is the only Australian city to have a partnership with a Russian city.

“They encourage friendship, they encourage cooperation, understanding, and I do believe that they do help improve peace and coexistence worldwide.”

Press PLAY to hear more below 

Bill Papastergiadis, President of the Greek Community of Melbourne, emphasised that sister cities are key to building connection and multicultural communities.

“Connection brings understanding, and understanding prevents the conflicts that we have going on at the moment,” he said on 3AW Drive.

“The greater the relationships between different people and different countries, and different societies, the better it becomes in terms of understanding one another.”

Press PLAY to hear more from Bill Papastergiadis below

Image: iStock by Getty