Hualien Mayor Wei Chia-hsien (right) and Morioka Mayor Hiroaki Tanifuji (left) / Photo courtesy of CNA
Taipei, Nov. 24 (CNA) Hualien City in eastern Taiwan and Morioka, the capital of Iwate Prefecture in northern Japan, signed an agreement Sunday on establishing friendship relations.
Hualien Mayor Wei Chia-hsien signed the agreement with Morioka Mayor Hiroaki Tanifuji in Taiwan.
The agreement marks another achievement for Hualien in expanding its city diplomacy after it established sister city relations with the Japanese town of Takachiho in October, Wei added.
Hualien and Morioka began exchanges in 2000, Wei said.
Through the inking of the agreement, the two cities vowed to deepen people-to-people friendship and develop permanent good relations through tourism, industrial and cultural exchanges, he added.
Between 1981 and 1985, Hualien forged sister city ties with South Korea's Ulsan City, Japan's Yonaguni Town, Albuquerque in the U.S. state of New Mexico, Bellevue City in the U.S. state of Washington, and Oudtshoorn Municipality of Western Cape Province in the Republic of South Africa.
From 2005 to 2007, it established friendship city ties with Japan's Takachiho Town, Saipan City in the Northern Mariana Islands, and Santa Maria in the Philippines.
