U.S. Policy Toward Africa, Formalizing International Relationships Take Center Stage at International Affairs Meeting

by Jubi D. Headley, Jr.
January 29, 2001

The meeting of the Standing Committee on International Affairs under Denver Mayor Wellington E. Webb featured several presentations on the Conference's efforts to build relationships across the globe from neighboring Mexico and Puerto Rico, to efforts on the African continent and in the world most populous nation, China.

U.S. Policy Toward Africa

Muntu Matsimela, Program Director for State and Municipal Affairs at The Africa Fund, spoke on current efforts by his and other organizations to promote economic development and social reform in African nations. Specifically, Mr. Matsimela's role with The Africa Fund is to promote the involvement of public officials with U.S. policy toward Africa. With more than thirty years of leadership experience in building community support for issues affecting Africa, including anti-apartheid and anti-colonialism, Mr. Matsimela called on mayors to continue their efforts to build relationships with their counterparts in African nations, and to share best practices and resources with local officials in developing nations. He characterized the HIV/AIDS crisis (more than 70% of the epidemic is concentrated in Africa) and U.S. debt cancellation for African nations as priority issues on which mayors' voices could be influential.

In fact, U.S. Policy toward Africa has been an issue in which The Conference has been actively involved for the past several years. When Mayor Webb was Vice President of the Conference, he led the mayors in organizing The Mayors Summit on Africa during the 1998 Winter Meeting, which was supported by a number of federal, international, private sector and non-profit partners, including the Africa Fund. Mayor Webb also led a delegation of mayors to Africa in 1999, not only to meet with mayors of cities in African nations, but also to participate in the historic African-American Summit, organized by the Rev. Leon Sullivan.

Cities 2000

Mayor Webb's delegation to Africa marked the beginning of the "Cities 2000" Initiative, which Mayor Webb officially launched when he became President of the Conference. The goal of "Cities 2000" is to promote the role of cities in the international economic and political arena, and to facilitate the exchange of metropolitan best practices and strategies across continents, through a series of international meetings and exchanges.

During Mayor Webb's year as President he was able to meet with mayors from across the globe, not only on the African continent, but also in Asia, South America, and Europe was well. These exchanges were so overwhelmingly productive for all involved that many of the mayors who participated asked the Conference to create a vehicle that could sustain these exchanges and relationships over time.

In one of his last acts as President Mayor Webb led the mayors to adopt a resolution during the Annual Meeting in Seattle last year, charging the Executive Director of The United States Conference of mayors to create an International Conference of Mayors, an institution which would have no peer in the world, to further these goals. Conference Executive Director J. Thomas Cochran joined the mayors during the session to update them on the status of the Conference's efforts on this front. The Cities 2000 initiative is expected to receive considerable attention over the next two years, culminating in an international summit where delegations of mayors, representing dozens of nations where the Conference has built relationships, will assemble to formalize the creation of an international body.

Partnership with the China Association of Mayors

Conference Trustee and Lynn Mayor Patrick McManus also gave a presentation on The  U.S. Conference of Mayors partnership with the China Association of Mayors. As part of Cities 2000 Initiative, last June the Conference signed an agreement to establish formal relations with the China Association of Mayors.

Last year, just after the Annual Meeting in Seattle, Lynn Mayor Patrick J. McManus led a U.S. delegation of mayors to China to sign this historic agreement, in meetings with Chinese mayors and top-ranking national officials in four cities, including Beijing and Shanghai. The agreement calls for the two mayoral organizations to exchange information on a variety of key urban issues ranging from environmental infrastructure to early childhood development.

The delegation that Mayor McManus led convened in China officially as part of the Second U.S.-Sino Conference on Urban Development and Cooperation. The conference was hosted by the Conference of Mayors and the China Association of Mayors.

The first such conference occurred in January of 1999 in Honolulu under the auspices of both organizations and Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris. That first conference led to further discussions between the two organizations, and resulted in the resolution passed Annual Meeting in Seattle that authorized the memorandum of cooperation.

Mayor Harris was unfortunately able to join the mayors to make a presentation, but the mayors heard from Manuel Menendez, who serves as Executive Director of the Office of Economic Development for the City and County of Honolulu, and has been Mayor Harris' chief liaison with the Chinese mayors.

WTO/China Report

Bob Goldberg, who serves as Chief of the Economic Office at the China Desk within the State Department joined the mayors to provide an update on recent developments on the United States' relationship with China, particularly as related to the World Trade organization, or WTO for short. Mayor Webb was one of a number of mayors who attended the WTO meeting in Seattle last year, and has been a strong supporter of permanently normalizing trade relations with China-in fact, the City of Denver opened a trade office in China last year. Also, at the Annual Meeting in Seattle the membership adopted a resolution supporting ratification of the U.S.-China WTO Agreement, also known as Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR), passed by Congress later that year.

Navy Live Munitions Testing in Vieques

Another presenter was Angel Castillo, Executive Director of the Puerto Rico Association of Mayors, who briefed the committee on recent developments centered around demands that the U.S. Navy cease military training exercises on the Island Municipality of Vieques.

Castillo was accompanied by eight mayors from the pro-commonwealth party who now control 54 of Puerto Rico's 78 municipalities. In addition, the new Governor of Puerto Rico is former San Juan Mayor Sila Calderon who enlisted the support of then Conference President Denver Mayor Wellington E. Webb in 1999 to urge that the U.S. Navy cease live-fire training exercises in Vieques. The issue helped propel Mayor Calderon into the governorship, ending eight years of pro-statehood domination of Puerto Rico's island politics.

Castillo expressed gratitude for the Conference's past expressions of solidarity on the controversial issue, as well as providing an historical and current perspective on the issue.

Announcements: Upcoming International Meetings

A number of upcoming international Meetings were announced as well, including the "Asia Pacific Cities Summit" in Seattle from May 6-8 of this year (contact: Cliff Traisman, Mayor Schell's office), and the "North American International Trade Corridor Partnership Business Summit" in Fort Worth from May 9-11 (contact: Shirley Little, Mayor Barr's office). You can find web addresses and mayor's office contact information on the Conference's website www.usmayors.org/uscm/meet_mayors.