Abstract:
Sister city cooperation becomes one of the prominent international
cooperation frameworks which provides extensive space for local
government units, private sectors, and other non-state actors to take part in
international affairs by cooperating with foreign parties. The phenomenon
of such cooperation displays the rise of crucial role owned by local
governments which makes central governments to be no longer perform as
the sole actor in international relations. The purpose of sister city
cooperation has gradually shifted from creating peace and reconciliation in
the beginning of its implementation into cooperation in various fields in
order to benefit the city partners. There are a lot of cities in Indonesia which
have been actively involved in sister city cooperation with foreign parties,
one of the examples is between Surabaya (Indonesia) and Kitakyushu
(Japan). Both cities began their sister city cooperation officially in 2012.
Their partnership focuses on environmental sector where Kitakyushu helps
Surabaya to overcome its environmental issues by providing assistance
during 2012 to 2016. This assistance is finally able to transform Surabaya
into becoming a green city in 2017. Kitakyushu itself is known as the first
and sole sister city partner of Surabaya in terms of environmental
cooperation. Therefore, this study aims to discuss the ongoing development
of sister city framework in international relations by examining the efforts
taken by Surabaya and Kitakyushu in areas of environmental cooperation.
Such cooperation is enhanced within the scope of achieving green city
attributes and the status of green city by Surabaya. This study relies on
qualitative method by gathering data from books, journals, official websites,
and published news.
