The mayors of Seoul and Mexico City agreed Tuesday to elevate the friendly relationship between the two capitals to a strategic and mutually beneficial one. Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon met with Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum at her office in the Mexican capital and signed an agreement to strengthen cooperation and exchanges based on the new relationship.

Seoul and Mexico City, which have been sister cities since 1992, formed a memorandum of understanding in 2010 to promote cooperation in various areas. The Seoul metropolitan government said it wanted the strengthening of ties with Mexico City to widen its cooperation and exchanges with the Central and South American region, given that Mexico accounts for 40 percent of South Korea’s trade with that region and that South Korea is the Latin American country’s sixth-largest trading partner.

Under the new relations, the two capitals will expand their exchanges to the areas of smart cities, urban regeneration, social economy, public security and traffic from cultural events and cooperation in international organizations. Prior to signing the agreement, Park held a closed meeting with Sheinbaum and pledged Seoul’s cooperation on an urban revitalization project implemented by the Mexican mayor, Seoul officials said. During the meeting, Sheinbaum thanked the Seoul local government for offering Mexico City US$50,000 following a 2017 quake. The two mayors also agreed to hold the next round of the general congress of the Global Social Economy Forum (GSEF) in Mexico City next year. The GSEF, initiated by Seoul in 2014, is an international network that brings together local governments and civil society stakeholders committed to supporting the development of the social economy.