Twinning between cities, a useful cooperation tool? The case of Seoul and Mexico City

In international relations, great importance is usually given to the State, since this is the most important actor in the international environment, but at the international level there is a wide variety of actors. Within the State there are entities that have international activities, such as the case of subnational governments that carry out paradiplomatic actions.

In the words of Zidane Zeraoui, paradiplomacy is "the ability of municipalities, states or regions and private companies to dialogue directly with other parts of the world -adding that it constitutes- a response to the State's inability to resolve local problems"[1 ]. At present, paradiplomacy is more formal than in the past, international organizations and national organizations or agencies with a vocation abroad (such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), give certainty to subnational actors to make agreements or act in a international level that can tend to be anarchic.

The closest antecedent of organized cooperation between communities was in 1913 with the creation of the International Union of Local Authorities (UIAL)[2]. Later, in 1950 the International Union of Mayors for Franco-German Understanding[3] would be created for reconciliation in Europe due to World War II, that same year, the German city of Ludwigsburg and the French city of Montbéliard would sign a twinning agreement that would be replicated and would become a decentralized cooperation tool.

Later, the African Conference on Intercommunal World Cooperation was held in 1964 where twinning was recognized as an instrument of international cooperation [4], later, through United Nations (UN) Resolution 2861, the figure was officially established. twinning as a mechanism for international cooperation in 1971.

In the Resolution, the UN recognizes that "[...] twinning between cities is a very valuable cooperation tool between countries, since it connects nations and their populations, and can help development between localities"[5]. Despite the fact that twinnings between cities had already been carried out, these were done through conventions, which, according to Robert O. Keohane, are “[…] informal institutions that allow coordinating the behavior of the actors in a simple way” [6].

With its Resolution, the UN formalized cooperation through twinning and gave more certainty to those interested with the promotion of the mechanism by the international organization. In the same way, it influenced the governments of the world to adopt it, since it promoted peace between peoples and cooperation for development, it was a much closer tool and focused on the citizens of a locality.

A twinning agreement is a cooperation instrument with which two actors show their mutual interest in associating to work together, in favor of their interests or to solve problems they may have; Likewise, the agreement can represent an opportunity to advance in different areas and the strengthening of relations. Depending on the projects, the agreement can generate better levels of development for the populations.

Seoul-Mexico City relationship

In Mexico there are several cities that have made twinning agreements with other cities in the world, such as Mexico City and Seoul. The relationship between the metropolises began in 1992 with the signing of their Twinning Agreement, which was strengthened with the signing of another agreement in 2010 and finally in 2019 the cities signed an Agreement to Strengthen Strategic Cooperation, whose objective is "[...] elevate the relationship to a strategic cooperation the long-term development of the efforts of the two cities" [7].

In 1992 the "Law on the celebration of treaties" arose, where, formally, Mexican subnational actors were authorized to sign agreements with foreign actors, with the knowledge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so that in the agreements there was an accompaniment of the Secretariat, and there was greater certainty on the part of the capital's government.

Twinnings sound good, but what has been achieved with them? During the relationship between Seoul and Mexico City, it is worth noting two projects that have been given thanks to cooperation, the first are the Vocational Training Program (VTP) scholarships and the second are the programs offered by the Human Resources Development Center of Seoul (CDRHS).

The Vocational Training Program is a program offered by the Seoul Metropolitan Government since 2001 that offers scholarships to young people from sister cities through a call for their vocational training in Seoul with a duration of ten months and has the objective of "[...] strengthening the friendly ties with sister cities and promote the idea of Seoul as a city that shares its advanced technology with the world” [8]. Source: Seoul Institute of Technology and Education, (s/f)

As can be seen in the table, throughout the relationship 44 young Mexicans have benefited from the scholarships offered by the VTP. The courses most requested by young Mexican men and women have been cooking, web programming and electricity. The participants are given the facilities to settle in the city and then they are given their training course with Korean language classes and a bit of Seoul history.

On the other hand, the Seoul Metropolitan Government, in collaboration with the Metropolis organization, has been dedicated to sharing its public policies with its sister cities through the Seoul Human Resources Development Center (CDRHS). In short, the Center wants to "[...] contribute to the resolution of global urban problems by training public servants from the invited cities through courses" [9].

In 2021, the most recent course that the Center for Mexican public servants helped to carry out was carried out, the topic of the course was on security in smart cities. In order to present solutions with what was learned in the course, public servants Fernanda Cerda and Ivonne Hernández made a presentation entitled "Suicide in the Metro Public Transportation System in Mexico City" in which it is mentioned that an artificial intelligence system communicated with A CCTV surveillance system could help prevent suicides on the subway, as the Seoul authorities have used the resource to prevent suicides by analyzing people's behavior.

The officials determined that the obstacles to the implementation of a similar system in the Mexico City subway would be the “[…] lack of budget for the purchase and installation of the system, the lack of training of the police and subway personnel for the care of these situations and the lack of specialized medical personnel” [10].

The twinning that Mexico City has with Seoul can be perceived as a strong bond, since the Mexican population will benefit from the training offered with the VTP scholarships and the courses for public servants offered by the CDRHS of the asian city. Despite the fact that the bilateral relationship is not so intense between the parties, it is a beneficial relationship that brings societies closer and it is not a merely rhetorical twinning.

Conclusions

Twinning between cities is a tool of local diplomacy that manages to promote cooperation for development between the cities of the world thanks to the support and dissemination that it has had from international organizations and national governments that have made reforms in their laws. to facilitate this type of process.

Although it is true that twinning occurred before the UN recognized it as an important cooperation tool, its recognition and promotion managed to consolidate it as a tool for decentralized cooperation. In addition, with the adoption of twinning within national laws, the institutional weakness that the UN could have in promoting these has been corrected, since it went from being a desirable suggestion to a consolidated tool within the legal framework of a nation that gives social benefits.

Undoubtedly, the twinning agreement that Mexico City has with Seoul is one of a practical nature due to the programs that have been mentioned in the work and this joint work will be useful for the Mexican capital to develop, since the programs presented here help to generate human capital that, in the short term, will be able to offer many solutions to problems that affect the city.