PLANS to twin Oxford with three new cities around the globe are set to be rubberstamped next week.
Oxford City Council has looked to partner with Polish city Wroclaw, Ramallah in the West Bank and Italian city Padua over recent months.
Deputy Lord Mayor Sajjad Malik and executive board member Mary Clarkson joined a delegation in Wroclaw to sign official documents in December.
Watch: Video tour of Oxford new Polish twin city
But its executive board will be asked to give final approval for all of the partnerships.
When approved, Oxford will have eight twin cities – although cities of similar size tend to have far fewer. Cambridge, for example, has just two.
Picturesque and historic Wroclaw in Poland.
Although the council says there is a risk twinning with the three new cities could create ‘competition for attention’, it has not ruled out future links.
Those new cities must have a university of ‘international renown that already has links with Oxford’ and is committed to individual liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and equality.
Read again: Could Oxford twin with city in the West Bank?
The council notes ‘political values’ of twinned cities are not fixed. It notes they could ‘change over time’ and cause potential disagreements.
That appears to refer to its current partnership with Leon in Nicaragua, which suffered a blow last October.
University students in Ramallah in the West Bank.
Leon’s mayor, Roger Gurdian, was due to meet Oxford’s Lord Mayor Colin Cook but pulled out.
The council was happy to ask Dr Gurdian to attend – but requested he did not bring the Nicaragua’s ambassador to the UK following alleged human rights abuses by the country’s government.
Read again: Nicaraguan Mayor snubs Oxford over political row
City councillor John Tanner, also the chairman of the Oxford Leon Association, said at the time that it was a ‘significant setback’ for cities’ relationship.
The relationship with Padua has largely been driven by Oxford University.
Its pro-vice chancellor Anne Trefethen will host a delegation of academics from the city later this month.
A historic quarter of Padua, Italy.
That will see a memorandum of understanding between the cities signed by Oxford University’s Gardens, Libraries and Museums (GLAM) directorate and Padua University’s equivalent, CAM.
Oxford is able to axe of any its twinning relationships if it gives 12 months’ notice.
About £23,000 of the council's money will be spent from April on the links but it has been proposed that money will be cut back to £17,000 in future years.
Read again: Beautiful Padua, Oxford's new Italian sister
Oxford was one of the first cities in the UK to twin with others in Europe following the end of World War Two.
It twinned with Leiden in the Netherlands immediately following the war.
It formalised a link with Bonn, Germany in 1947. Both are recognised with squares in Oxford city centre.
A twinning link with Grenoble, in France, was agreed in 1989. Russian city Perm became a twin city of Oxford in 1995.
Oxford’s twinning with Leon was completed in 1986.
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