How St. Louis maintains ‘sister city’ relationships around the world

Maria De Gregorio moved to St. Louis six years ago. The native of Rosario, Argentina, wanted to maintain her deep ties to her homeland, and today, she is the chair of the St. Louis-Rosario Sister Cities Committee.

The relationship — officially recognized by Sister Cities International — is one of 16 sister city connections St. Louis enjoys with cities throughout the world.

“It all started in 2017 with a delegation of companies, universities, and organizations from St. Louis that traveled to Rosario and Buenos Aires,” explained De Gregorio. “Both cities are port cities, and they would like to become ag-tech hubs for the region.”

While sister city relationships often present an economic benefit, another goal is to enhance citizen diplomacy and cultural ties.

Rosario is St. Louis’ most recently formed sister city. St. Louis’ longest-lived one began in 1960 with Stuttgart, Germany.

Tim Nowak.

The World Trade Center St. Louis, an arm of the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership, acts as the umbrella organization for the city’s 16 connections. In turn, each sister city relationship is headed by a committee of volunteers in St. Louis.

“The more time we spend building these important global relationships, the better we are able to understand and appreciate foreign cultures,” explained Tim Nowak, executive director of the World Trade Center St. Louis. ”We're also able to promote our own city and to promote our own culture, to take a little bit about what makes St. Louis special and share that with foreign partners.”

Another of St. Louis’ sister city relationships began in 1994, with a place that shares its name: St. Louis, Senegal. In that case, it was citizens in Senegal who first reached out to denizens of St. Louis, Missouri.

A big part of the St. Louis-St. Louis connection involves schools.

“We give supplies, we help to maintain the premises of schools. We've had teachers come here, and teachers go there for exchanges, we've had students do exchanges,” said Renée Brummell Franklin, the co-president of the relationship.

Even in times of conflict and controversy, Sister Cities International has urged communities to maintain ties. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, some communities have suspended or disbanded relationships.

St. Louis maintains an official relationship with Samara, Russia.

“That question did come to us,” said Nowak. “This entire program was started under the theory of citizen diplomacy. This is taking politics out of it, and so I think the mission remains the same.

“We need to better understand each other, better understand one another's cultures, and that doesn't come from canceling relationships. We're not in agreement with what's happened, but I think there are still opportunities for us to make a small difference here at a sub-national level, people-to-people, and continuing to maintain these relationships.”

To hear more about St. Louis’ sister city relationships listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcast, Spotify or Google Podcast by clicking the play button below.

“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Ulaa Kuziez is our production intern. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr. Send questions and comments about this story to talk@stlpr.org.