{"id":253455,"date":"2025-09-25T11:18:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T11:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/253455\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T11:18:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T11:18:10","slug":"dallas-cancels-sister-city-ties-with-russia-china-to-comply-with-new-texas-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/253455\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas cancels sister city ties with Russia, China to comply with new Texas law"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dallas has ended relationships with sister cities in Russia and China to comply with a new state law banning such agreements with countries deemed foreign adversaries. <\/p>\n

The Dallas City Council on Wednesday approved ending the city\u2019s connections with Tianjin, China, and Saratov, Russia, after Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 128 into law in June. It requires all Texas cities to terminate sister city agreements with China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia by Oct. 1.<\/p>\n

Texas lawmakers who supported HB 128 argued that sister city agreements with China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia could pose security risks or conflict with U.S. foreign policy.<\/p>\n

Sister city agreements are meant to promote tourism as well as cultural, business and educational exchanges. City Council member Adam Bazaldua went on a 10-day trip to Dallas\u2019 sister city Sendai, Japan, earlier this month<\/a>. The $6,000 visit was funded by the city\u2019s office of government affairs using reallocated American Rescue Plan Act funds, which were designated in February 2024 to boost international business and tourism.<\/p>\n

Political Points<\/p>\n

Get the latest politics news from North Texas and beyond.<\/p>\n

By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

Tianjin, China, was established as a sister city with Dallas in 1995, and Saratov in southwestern Russia has had a sister city agreement with Dallas since it was approved by the City Council in 2004. Dallas suspended its relationship with Saratov in March 2022<\/a> after Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine. <\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Dallas has at least nine sister city agreements, with Mayor Eric Johnson signing an agreement to add Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in July. <\/p>\n

Council member Cara Mendelsohn criticized the number of agreements at Wednesday\u2019s meeting. She suggested the city\u2019s program be reviewed and that there be a set criteria for success to determine which partnerships are actually necessary. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith so many relationships, we don\u2019t have a clear strategy for which partnerships matter most and why,\u201d she said. \u201cMeanwhile, residents expect us to focus on core needs, public safety, infrastructure and affordability that are much closer to home.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas has ended relationships with sister cities in Russia and China to comply with a new state law…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":253456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,14840,14841,80,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-253455","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-city-council","11":"tag-dallas-city-hall","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115264664766251495","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}