Cebu City, Vladivostok, sign friendship, cooperation pact

CEBU, Philippines — Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama has signed on Wednesday the “Agreement on Friendship and Cooperation” with the City of Vladivostok in Russia.

This, after the City Council authorized Rama, for and on behalf of the city, to sign and enter into the said agreement with the administration of the City of Vladivostok represented by its City Mayor Konstantin Shestakov.

The council said this is to establish friendly relations and mutually beneficial cooperation between the two cities.

The First Secretary of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Philippines, Yaroslav Pavlov, represented his country during the signing of the agreement.

It was also witnessed by Cebu City Vice Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia; Caesar Atienza, director of the Philippine-Russia Business Assembly, Inc.; Russian Consul Armie Garcia; Sister City Commission Executive Director Karla Henry-Ammann.

Vladivostok is a city and administrative center of Primorsky Krai, located in the far east of Russia around the Golden Horn Bay.

It covers an area of 331.16 square kilometers (127.86 square miles), with a population of 600,871 residents as of 2021.

The city is famous for its harbor location as the home port of the Russian Pacific Fleet and being the final stop on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Fishing and ship engineering are its primary industries, alongside energy and food production.

Councilor James Anthony Cuenco, who heads the Cebu City Sister City Commission (CCSCC), earlier said that the city sought to establish more sister cities abroad in previous years, but this lacked follow through and eventually became dormant.

In the past two years, the commission had virtually ceased operations due to COVID-19 pandemic which restricted international travels.

With the easing of travel restrictions now, the commission is eager to strengthen the city’s ties with its existing sister cities.

Per the current records, the city has active relations with Yeosu City, South Korea; Kaohsiung City, Taiwan; Xiamen City, China; and Haarlemmermeer, Netherlands. — GMR (FREEMAN)