Russia-United States Municipal Forum in Moscow

From October 9th to 14th, Shin Koyamada, KIF Chairman and Sister Cities International board member visited Moscow to participate the fifth Russia-United States Municipal Forum held in the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation in Moscow. 16 other American delegation leaders representing more than a dozen of American cities joined the Forum along with the Russian government officials and mayors and community leaders to exchange high level dialogue on bilateral sister cities and people-to-people exchanges.

On October 10th, the American delegation had a brief discussion with the Director of North America of the Russian's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) about sister cities and people-to-people exchanges at the MFA's building and then with the senior officials with the American Embassy Moscow about the delegation's agenda.

Following the meetings, Shin participated the Russian-US Youth Leadership Summit to inspire American and Russian young people to pursue their dreams and address the importance of people-to-people exchanges.

The aim of the Forum was to maintain and strengthen the cooperation between the Russian and American counterparts in municipal area. The Forum became a platform for the continuation of cooperation between sister cities and the restoration of suspended municipal ties and establishment of new partnerships.

The event has been coordinated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.The Russian-US Municipal Forum was the first Forum in the Russian Federation, which gathered the heads of Russian and American cities in order to have discussion of the key issues of the urban society.