Colorado Springs and Fujiyoshida, Japan celebrate 60 years as sister cities

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Colorado Springs and Fujiyoshida, Japan are celebrating 60 years as sister cities Monday.

To celebrate the milestone, a delegation of nine people, including Fujiyoshida’s Mayor and his wife will be in Colorado Springs to celebrate the long-standing relationship between the two cities. As part of the celebration, Fujiyoshida Mayor Shigeru Horiuchi and Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers will each plant a Japanese Lilac tree in America the Beautiful Park.

According to the City of Colorado Springs, Mayor Horiuchi also planted a tree in Colorado Springs in 2012. Two trees have been planted in Fujiyoshida by Colorado Springs mayors, including one in 2017 to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the sister cities' relationship.

Sister Cities International was created at President Eisenhower’s 1956 White House summit on citizen diplomacy. Colorado Springs Sister Cities International launched in 1962 with its first sister city, Fujiyoshida, Japan.

The city said Colorado Springs engages with seven global sister cities to advance world peace, friendship, cultural understanding, and mutual economic reward.

Colorado Springs' seven international sister cities are:

• Fujiyoshida, Japan (1962)
• Kaohsiung, Taiwan (1983)
• Smolensk, Russia (1993)
• Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (1994)
• Nuevo Casas Grandes, Mexico (1996)
• Bankstown, Australia (1999)
• Ancient Olympia, Greece (2014)