“In view of the challenges of globalization, inter – municipal cooperation, mainly through twinning programmes, emerges as a privileged space for dialogue, understanding, support and strengthening” between peoples and territories, stated the Regional Under Secretary for European Affairs and External Cooperation on Monday.
Rodrigo Oliveira spoke, on behalf of the Regional Secretary of the Presidency, at the opening session of the Forum “Twinning, A Bridge for the World,” an initiative that took place this morning at the Main Hall of the Ribeira Grande City Hall on Monday morning, bringing together the presidents and representatives of the municipalities of Lagos, Ribeira Grande de Santiago, Ribeira Grande de Santo Antão, Portalegre, East Providence and Somerville.
The presence of the sister cities of Ribeira Grande, considered the Regional Under Secretary, “reveals the traces of a history that interconnects at various times, which constitutes the foundation of a more prosperous, united future based on solidarity.” The Government’s official also “defended the importance of the work carried out by municipalities in the “involvement and interaction with other territories” as “a factor of increasing importance in the complexity of international relations and diplomacy.”  
“In a globalised world, the most important factor in the affirmation of individuals, public and territorial institutions is neither geography nor location, but interaction,” defended Rodrigo Oliveira with regard to twinning and the “Atlantic insertion” of the Azores as an “archipelago located between the European and North American continents.”
The Regional Under Secretary also recalled that the Azores, during 2010, were chosen as “European Region of the Year,” “an award that makes us proud and distinguishes us in the European territorial diversity.” The integration of the Forum “Twinning, A Bridge for the World” in the celebration programme of the European Region of the Year aims to emphasise the “vocation of the Azores, an archipelago with approximately forty twin municipalities and cities, as a bridge between different continents as well as a Region committed in the promotion of cooperation initiatives and inter-municipal solidarity.”
Rodrigo Oliveira also conveyed “a word of encouragement to the enhancement of the twinning process between several Azorean municipalities and hopes that the Forum “may lead to the opening of new paths” for cooperation.  
After the opening session, Rodrigo Oliveira signed, on behalf of the Regional Secretary of the Presidency, Andrew Bradford, a protocol between the Governments of the Azores, Ribeira Grande City Hall and Ribeira Grande de Santiago City Hall in Cape Verde to support the recovery of the Tchuba-Tchobe neighbourhood located in Pico Leão. Nearly twenty houses will be renewed under a project co-funded (50%) by the Government of the Azores and the Ribeira Grande City Hall.