SEOUL, July 29 (AJP) - Uzbekistan has added another international gathering to Samarkand's growing calendar, hosting the country's first International Sister Cities Forum in the ancient Silk Road city on July 24 and 25, the latest step in a deliberate campaign to make Samarkand the country's face to the world.
The forum opened with a scientific and practical conference titled "Brother Cities: A New Model of Sustainable Development and Public Diplomacy," which drew experts, city officials, diplomats and academics from about 20 countries, according to the Uzbek Embassy in Seoul. Participants joined in person and online, alongside representatives of foreign embassies in Uzbekistan, international organizations and local universities.
The choice of venue was no accident. Since hosting the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in September 2022, where leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin adopted more than 40 documents, Tashkent has steadily positioned Samarkand as its premier stage for international events. The city welcomed the UN World Tourism Organization General Assembly in 2023, backed by a purpose-built congress and hotel complex, Silk Road Samarkand, and an international airport terminal opened in 2022 that cut travel friction for foreign delegations.
The sister cities forum extends that strategy from head-of-state summitry down to the municipal level, where Uzbekistan is betting that city-to-city ties can deliver trade, investment and tourism results that national diplomacy alone cannot.
The conference was organized around a plenary session and three thematic tracks. The first covered trade, economic and investment cooperation between partnered cities and regions, with discussions on industrial cooperation, export expansion and support for small and medium-sized businesses. The second addressed science, education, technology and innovation, including partnerships between universities and research centers, joint research projects, academic exchanges and the sharing of smart city and digital governance experience. The third treated tourism as a strategic tool for the sister city network, focusing on joint tourism projects, new routes and the international promotion of Uzbekistan's historical and cultural heritage.
Beyond the conference, the two-day forum program included panel discussions, roundtables and signing ceremonies for memorandums and cooperation agreements between sister cities, according to Uzbekistan's Dunyo news agency.
The embassy said initiatives and proposals put forward at the conference would feed into new joint projects in economics, education, innovation, tourism and cultural cooperation between partnered cities.
The conference brought together participants from about 20 countries, with the full forum running through July 25.
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