Chennai a key linkage for states, cities in US

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

Chennai is one of the major city linkages for states and cities in the United States to advance Indo-American ties, according to a United States state department official.

Talking to Express during the visit of a 28-member delegation from the city of San Antonio in Texas lead by the city’s mayor Julian Castro, United States State Department official Merin Rajadurai said the focus of US is to engage more indepth with South India, and India at large.

Interestingly, more states in the United States are also planning to have Chennai in their itinerary while visiting India to adavance India-United States ties, said Rajadurai, the official who has migrated from Kanyakumari.

The visit of mayor of San Antonio comes in the wake of sister city relationship prevalent between San Antonio and Chennai since 2008.

“I will be visiting the mayor of Chennai to visit him to the sister city conference in July,” said Castro after inviting Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry officials to visit San Antonio during a luncheom meeting on Thursday.

Interestingly, Chennai is the only city in India and among the eight cities globally with which San Antonio has sisterly ties. Castro, who will also address the Confederation of Indian Industry partnership summit in Agra on Tuesday, said the focus of San Antonio is on information technology, higher education, biomedical and healthcare.

Interestingly, it is not Pongal but the festival of lights that symbolizes the ties between Chennai and San Antonio. A San Antonio official said that the city has become famous for its Diwali Festival of Lights, which draws more than 15,000 attendees annually after the signing in the sister city partnership with Chennai.  

Diwali, organized by the Chennai sister city organization “Anuja,” is held every year in early November and celebrates San Antonio’s ties with India and Chennai, she said.

To a query on his Chennai experiences, the mayor said that he has just arrived and has not travelled much but is keen to see more of the city during the Republic Day Celebrations.