'Our friendship has set a strong foundation': Turner celebrates 60 years of sister city relationship with Taipei

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is celebrating 60 years since the beginning of Houston's Sister City relationship with Taipei. 

Turner joined Mayor Ko Wen-je of Taipei City to celebrate the occasion through a virtual signing of the memorandum of understanding. 

"Our friendship [with Taipei] has set a strong foundation to what it means to be a sister city with countries around the world," Turner said in a post on the Mayor's Office of Trade and International Affairs Facebook page. 

There are about 20,000 people in Houston and 80,000 people in the Greater Houston area from the Taiwanese community, the post said. 

"Today, we are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Sister City relationship of Taipei, Taiwan, and the City of Houston, Texas," Turner said in a post on Twitter. 

The Mayor’s Office of Trade and International Affairs serves as Houston's liaison to its sister city associations, to the national governing organization, Sister Cities International and to the local Sister Cities of Houston organization, the City of Houston said on its website. 

"We look forward to welcoming Taipei to our great city very soon, and to our continued collaboration to uphold the sister city mission we share with the City of Taipei for many years to come," the Mayor's Office of Trade and International Affairs Facebook post said. "Houston is delighted to join hands with Taipei and cities around the world to share best practices and dialogue on how we can provide a better future and environment for our citizens, from increasing global education and learning, cultural exchanges, building Smart Cities, to leading the Energy Transition and tackling the challenge of Climate Action, and so much more."

Taipei, the capital city of Taiwan, entered into a sister city relationship with Houston in 1961. It's one of 18 to maintain ties with the nation's fourth largest city, the City of Houston website said. 

"It was a privilege to join Taiwan Ambassador to the U.S., @bikhim, this week to discuss how we can continue to strengthen our nations’ partnership. America will always support our great ally, Taiwan," Rep. Brian Babin said in a Twitter post.