here at the heart of civic life, the san francisco city hall. i am very enthusiastic about this relationship, the sister city relationship. this is our 17th sister city. our sister city relationship goes back to 190057 -- 1957, when right after the japanese peace treaty, president eisenhower called the then-mayor george christopher and asked him to engage in at the time, the nation's first sister city between the united states and japan. since then, we have celebrated 15 other sister city relationships, a number of them later this year. most significantly perhaps shanghai in china, which continues to be one of the most

vibrant and dynamic and important sister city relationships between any two cies, and i would argue quite objectively, in the world. we take these relationships quite seriously, as we did recently when we decided to part with the region around bang galore. we had a bludgeon to of the really transcended san francisco. as a city, we represented the larger bay area. but these relationships do not work without strong, forceful commitment from the people behind them. i am proud of the comptroller general and others who have organized themselves around this effort to have committed, through the long run, in terms of this relationship. it is my goal and my hope and expectation, recognizing that people like me, and go. just as george christopher served his time as a steward of

the city, just as willie brown did the same, there will be many that, behind me. it is my hope and expectation that 25 years from now, 50 years from now, mayors will be celebrating the success of sister cities. hopefully, to the extent possible, reminding those who are assembled, that it all began here in 2010, in the city of san francisco. let me once again welcome all of you. thank you for your strong support. let me also recognize how proud i aml[l" that i will be bestowg symbolically and substantively the key to our city on behalf of the citizens of san francisco, as i did to his majesty in april 2004, when i had the privilege of doing the same, for the first time, as the

newly sworn mayor of san francisco, when his majesty came to our city. that was a thrilling experience for me. anyone who knows his majesty knows his formal side and gets to learn about his informal side, and the human side. he is an extraordinary person. i mean that. i have had the occasion to meet with him on multiple occasions and i enjoy his perspective and insight. that is really the cause that brings us together today in the context of the sister city relationship. so with that in mind, mr. mayor, on behalf of all of us, i would like to give you a key that is a replica from our oldest building, which does not seem

old to you. this city -- what are we? i am embarrassed to say it. nevertheless, our oldest standing structure, and the key to the city. i want to present this to you again on behalf of secretary shultz, on behalf of all of those assembled dignitaries, leaders in the city, and on behalf of not just our two cities, but our respective countries. we look forward to an outstanding and fruitful relationship. i am honored that you took the time to come out to our great city. [applause] >> mr. mayer, please?

>> good morning. first of all, i want to thank mayor newsom for making this available, for facilitating this, and as well, for arranging this from a long time ago. mayor newsom, you were talking about 17 system agreements. in on on, we have only one. that was the one that was arranged by this measure. allow me to remark on sister city agreement, my understanding on what they're feeling is, what their motives are. we managed to establish a well defined and genuine

relationship. in chicago there is a jordanian community that is vibrant, that has been there for many years and has proved the resilience and good work and passion that looking around, this is my first day here. i can see some jordan to in the city. i have no doubt. i am very hopeful. i think there is a lot that can be offered from the city of san francisco to the city of on oam. in the remaining few weeks and months, whether the mayor -- we are hopeful that we would stay

in touch with the city of amman. i am but to say that he has accepted the invitation. thank you for making this available. i am sure you will be seeing a lot of this space, and i will be seeing you soon. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. the mayor says he is leaving next week. it gives me great pleasure to

introduce the honor our counsel who is also the chairman for the program.

a couple of words because i am not as good of the speaker as mayor newsom. i do not want to pile up the whole thing, and i am going to read it to you, okay? >> [inaudible] all right. ok. on behalf of the san francisco /amman sister city community, i would like to welcome you all to this historical event. his majesty, king abdullah, loves san francisco, and he has a great respect for mayor newsom.

he inspired all of us to work and accomplish this sister city agreement. our thanks don to the mayor for his encouragement and cooperation. our thanks to the chief protocol, a good friend, and her secretary. and to the director of protocol. where is that you? i don't see him. we also welcome the mayor welcomeamman -- the mayor of amman, who made it one of the top cities in the world.

welcome to baghdad by the day. actually, mr. newsom, used on the line, i needed an appointment to come and see you at the governor's mansion in sacramento, california. [applause] by that time, i strongly believe that the mayor will be the prime minister in jordan. [applause] and we are going to come up with a new thing in the united states. we are going to ask your permission, mr. newsom, to make

the great state of california the sister states of the kingdom of jordan. [applause] the goals and purpose of the sister city committee is to contribute to their development of good relations between the cities of san francisco and amman, to promote trade and tourism, arts and culture, saving energy and natural resources, and mostly, to develop mutual understanding between people and officials of our cities. we would like to have exchange students between the universities and amman and

universities and colleges in san francisco. we are planning for students from san francisco during their summer internship to live and stay with jordanian families. and jordanian students to live with american families in san francisco. i strongly believe that people to people programs will result in mutual understanding among nations and will create more cooperation and peace throughout the world. the piece that is badly needed nowadays. i thank you again very much for coming. welcome, mayors of. thank you very much. [applause]

>> thank you, consul general. now, gentlemen, the time has come for the signing, so if you will join us at the table for the ceremonial signing of our sister city agreement with amman and san francisco. [applause]

>> good morning, ladies and gentlemen. we have our wonderful guests from barcelona, but that officials, our international

community of contel and generals. it is an exciting day. we are pleased to be joining with another beautiful city, barcelona, said the task of, and other beautiful city. it is my privilege to introduce someone who is very supportive of sister cities. we have 18, as you know. someone who has visited many of the cities. a mayor who has brokered -- this will be the fourth sister city in his administration. may i introduce the other two sister cities, the father of four cities, mayor gavin newsom. [applause] >> thank you all for coming out. charlotte, matthew, the protocol team. getting you all here on the balcony in city hall.

i want to welcome my friends from spain. thank you. thank you for your leadership. i want to pay particular note and complement to supervise a david campos for his hard work and tenacity and commitment to this sister city. he has been talking about this for months. i want to congratulate him on a job well done in helping to organize this and being a good steward in the process. i also want to thank --where is he? but they acknowledged supervisor bevan dufty. there is jose cisneros. we thank him for his strong support. as well come a department head,

commissioners assembled. this is our 18th sister city. formally, our relationships go back to 1957. the idea behind sister cities began when then-president dwight eisenhower recognized we need to reconcile that there were agreed -- disagreement between nations coming out of world war ii and the best way to reconcile the disagreement was people to people that love to say. people, representing cities, perhaps could get it right. that is when the sisters to the movement began. hear, it began with our first sister city in the osaka in 1957, 1st diplomatic relations between the u.s. and japan. we had the privilege of being

there is a couple of years back to celebrate the 50th anniversary. if you walk into the international room, you will see that the mayor from a sock and had not been enlarged robot celebrating the 50th anniversary. since then, 17 others have been established. this is number 18. we recently celebrated some significant milestones. 38th anniversary of our shanghai sister city. that was a significant moment, in terms of the relationship, again not just our two cities, but both countries. the first formal relations between the two countries were formed through that sister city bond. we had the opportunity to go to bed alarm as our first trip back there. we established a sister region

between bangalore and the san francisco area. there was a delegation of leaders who went back there. obviously connected to china and asia. we felt like it needed to incorporate india. that brings us here, this 18th finding of a sister city that celebrates the contribution and connection between spain and the that it states, between the seven tesco bay area, and the region around barcelona. we of blessed to have a lot of similarities in terms of our respective cities. notably, commitment to economic empowerment, innovation, well- established and informed

through biotech, life sciences, nano tech, green tech. of course, spain has made its own contributions to that effort. we are also looking to creating a framework behind digital media and digital parts. -- arts. we also hope to be celebrating the artistic contributions of 10 individuals and our city. that is what a sister city relationship is about. framing it in a formal manner, and a way that transcends what you see here, and provide an institutional framework that will allow people, 30, 40, 50 years later, to continue celebrating and commemorate this moment. the celebration, if successful,

50 years from now, whoever the mayor may be -- he or she will be here celebrating the 50th anniversary. their respective parties, many of us will be around saying, i remember when -- thank you in advance for being good stewards. these sister cities are not only the vibrant cities, a robust, contributing as they should, but most are, and we are proud of that. that is the commitment of the sister city committee. it is my hope and expectation and certainly my belief that there arthis will be a robust ad meaningful sister city. i have done only four and six

years. i have done only four to make sure that there is a real commitment behind them. there is nothing worse than making false promises. i have a good feeling here. there was a commitment from the committee formed with the council's general. so i have great hope and expectation that this will be a successful sister city. congratulations, thank you. i will bring charlotte back and leave the continue with the ceremony. his signature as well as our signature will affects this sister city relationship. [applause] >> thank you. you said we were alike in many ways. how about our soccer? >> i do not want to talk about that.

>> the counsel of general said that you have not got much work done there. congratulations. supervisor, the mayor has said many nice things about you, with -- which are worth it. you have shepherded us through that process, said it would be an honor to introduce you. supervisor campos. >> good morning, everyone. i do not know how to speak in catalan so i will speak to spanish. thank you for everyone for the work that you have done. i appreciate the fact that throughout this process the mayor has made it clear if we are going to have a sister city relationship with any city, it needs to be meaningful, not in name only. in these economic times, it makes sense for cities like san francisco to reach out to places

like barcelona. if you look at the history of what has happened between not just the cities of barcelona and san francisco, and the region of catalonia and san francisco, it makes sense. we established a region sister russia shed with the region of catalonia. i want to thank the group freinds of gaspart. the president of the organization could not be here but they have been trying to foster relationships, not just between san francisco and barcelona, but the entire region. the mere talk about the commonalities, the economic ties. there are many other ties. there are works between the museums in barcelona and the de jong. there are talks about the

universities in barcelona with ours. sharing production with the our pride in barcelona. there are many examples of that nature. but something that is special to me, as a gay man, and i see my partner in the audience -- is the commitment to civil rights and the very special committee that that barcelona has played to the lgbt community. those of you who watched the movie "milk" remember the same how there was a protest in barcelona in the days of franco inspiring activists like harvey milk to say that we will be treated equally. that connection has been in place for decades. when i visited barcelona, i was impressed by what harvey milk means to the lgbt community in barcelona. that is something that is really

special. spain, barcelona have had same- sex marriage for a number of years now. and the world has not come to an end. those cities are arriving. that region is driving. it shows you that you can be committed to civil rights, equality, and that commitment to add flights to something very positive. i think it makes sense, that someone like mayor newsom who has led the way, it is joining up with a city that has been doing it right for so long. i want you to know, in barcelona, many people see you as a good political leader for what you have done. now let me introduce to you someone from spain, someone who played an important role in city hall, in barcelona, his job as a counselor of international

relations is to represent the city of barcelona throughout the world. ignacio? >> good morning. i will set a couple of words in catalan the end of the speech. mayor newsom, officials, it is a great honor to share this moment with you. on behalf of the mayor of barcelona, i would like to say this ceremony is very important and emotional for every citizen in barcelona. we share a path on certain routes. hispanic history that we can see. we admire san francisco day.

during the last century's, barcelona and san francisco were considered harbor cities. for many decades we have been receiving populations from many different countries. you are in western get me to the united states and we are the capital for the in mediterranean region. we are both seen as open cities, for many european cities the word of san francisco for barcelona means open minded cities. this is important for us. we have many things in common in the past but also the present. we have read some of your economic proposals, like mission bay, similar to some of our high-tech projects in barcelona. i want to express our gratitude, mayor newsom, for your projects that you have introduced. as well, above