Sister Cities promotes peace through mutual respect, understanding, and cooperation—one individual, one community at a time. The international organization focuses on creating and strengthening partnerships between communities around four key themes:

• Sustainability and economic development
• Arts and culture
• Youth and education
• Humanitarian assistance

Sister Cities International is a leader for local community development and volunteer action.

The Minneapolis Sister Cities program was established in 1961 with the signing of the first Sister City agreement between Minneapolis and Santiago, Chile. Since, Minneapolis has forged valuable relationships with cities across the globe:

• Bosaso, Somalia *
• Cuernavaca, Mexico
• Eldoret, Kenya
• Harbin, China
• Ibaraki City, Japan
• Kuopio, Finland
• Najaf, Iraq
• Novosibirsk, Russia
• Tours, France
• Uppsala, Sweden
• Winnipeg, Canada

The Sister Cities program provides global connections and exchanges between international cities and the residents of Minneapolis, with the purpose of creating cultural awareness and fostering mutually beneficial opportunities. These relationships are supported and implemented by local citizen groups in Minneapolis and have also been accredited by Sister Cities International in Washington, D.C.

* The newest sister city relationship was established in 2014