Let me uh do the second half of what I
want to do this morning with the second
sister city story. And it is a budding
one a new one and some of you have heard
about this but it's our work uh with the
Ukraine. Right so when Eisenhower set up
sister cities I think the idea was a
little more clear and present. Right the
idea was one way to literally prevent
wars is if cities talk to each other in
all sorts of ways. And I think in our
modern era uh you know someone should
write some PhD on on if there was more
work we could have done with respect to
the Ukraine and Russia. That's way above
my pay grade but someone should look
into that.
um
But today we're playing catch-up and of
course uh for us uh it's about helping
the Ukraine. How can sister cities also
be a vehicle to help cities that are
literally under attack.
Now I talked to all the Mayors in the
country about this about two weeks ago,
and I will tell you there were a couple
of Mayors who have a little bit of a
global background and they were very
interested in this. But many of the other
Mayors and and these were hundreds of
Mayors big small cities all across the
country they were absolutely interested
in this concept.
And the idea is look the core sister
city sister City's Mission, we need to
have a few more in the Ukraine. So one is
like you got to ramp up the volume right
away.
And you need to spread it among the size
of cities so it's not just all Kiev.
And then the other aspect is in the
short term, you know I didn't really
think there were ways we could actually
help. And I will tell you I saw I had the
fortune through the conference of Mayors
to see on the screen you know uh the
present of Ukraine addressed us live
twice as mayors.
And I remember sitting there, and so did
by the way the mayor of of Kiev, uh who
if you're a boxing fan mayor Klitschko
was also the heavyweight champ, but um
the their politicians are incredible
people like you know and by any stretch
of the word even before what they're
going through now. But they
I would sit there in the audience like
you are today watching a screen and I
literally was I was like this is a huge
waste of their time. I was like you know
what we can do is not bother them with
the conference of mayor's address you
know. Uh we need to do the weapons and
the food and you know all these kinds of
things and that's how I felt I actually
was kind of embarrassed frankly that
that he spent 30 minutes with us. And
um I also kind of felt like you know
also because we're not really relevant. I
mean you know we can say things and we
can do things we can light up City Hall
yellow and blue but I mean come on like
they're fighting a war, and I respect
that.
So when the sister cities idea came up
for Albuquerque and Kharkiv I was a
little bit skeptical. And I I know it
came I want to acknowledge too it came
initially from the Sikh community. You
know we have a strong Sikh community here,
and they have a strong Sikh community in uh
Kharkiv. And so this was sort of the
initial connection. And so uh you know I
mean I'm always interested, but you know
I I said I said look I don't want to do
this,
unless it actually helps Kharkiv. Like
I'm not in this for a visit, I'm not in
this to you know learn about Ukrainian
food or whatever you know. Uh I want to
make this actually helpful for them. And
so I was skeptical I didn't think
actually given that criteria that it
would be worth doing frankly. But I will
tell you today we are uh very close to
signing all the relevant proclamations
on both sides of the Atlantic to become
sister cities with Kharkiv.
Um so let me just pause there that's an
awesome thing.
So I'll tell you a little bit about this,
and you're going to hear more about it
because uh one of the quarterbacks of
this initiative is our head of Economic
Development which houses our trade work,
and so you can hear from Randy Trask who
many of you know does trade, but also uh
his boss Max Gruner uh who's here, who
also has his own international story
which is an added bonus in the role. So
but at a high level for my level I want
to tell you what really convinced me.
First off the Sikh community had been there
several times during the conflict. So I
did realize that they are already giving
supplies and aid to Kharkiv from many of
you and many of you may know about this
but also from UNM and so forth. So we've
actually already done some medical
supplies deliveries through uh the Sikh
community which is an amazing thing. And
I didn't know that was actually real, uh
and it is I want you know it's real. I
think they're on their second physical
mission where they actually go there and
I've seen the pictures and everything.
It's amazing. And then they were able to
arrange a meeting with the mayor of uh
Kharkiv and myself.
And so what I wanted to focus on with
him during that time was to make sure
that we were not wasting his time. And I
will tell you I was wonderfully
surprised. He viewed this as an absolute
priority, even for his job as mayor. And
the reason why of course like in the
short term is absolutely things like aid
and awareness. Very similar to why the
president of the Ukraine addressed the
mayors. We've all seen the president
Ukraine on TV and whatnot.
But uh it was the same for the mayor of
Kharkiv uh he he was essentially saying
I want to do this for real. I want to do
it as fast as we can, and it matters to
us.
That I thought was incredibly powerful,
and empowering to us as New Mexicans. He
does want us to be a sister city. He does
want our help. And part of it is also
because they have figured out ways now
that unfortunately this is sort of a
sustained conflict. There are meaningful
ways that we can help.
And so the Sikhs and Macs and some
others in our fire department have put
together a way we think we can actually
give them an ambulance. And an ambulance
is an amazing thing when you are in need
of ambulances and emergency supplies. And
they're trying to build a new 24-hour
emergency room. And so all of this fits
together, and you know Lo and behold we
actually give ambulances to our sister
cities already. So this isn't new for us.
Of course we drive them to Mexico so
it's a little easier.
So there are some complicated logistics
but uh there wonderfully are some
organizations who do this. And so Max
might talk about this a little bit more
but we believe sometime this summer
we're going to be able to get an
ambulance to Kharkiv. And we're going to
fill it with supplies along the way. [Applause]
So let me close I think with this, we
we we ended our conversation uh with a
commitment to follow through. We want to
make it for real he also understands
that there needs to be,
um there's cultural exchange there too
right. it's not just about the ambulance.
But I think what's different with the
sister city like this now and what I
like about this, is like let's do both
right. Let's help them with real needs
today, but let's also honor what sister
cities is all about in the long term. And
what he left me with was was the
following. He said you know their number
one concern is that America is going to
forget them.
That's their number one concern. And I
also heard this from the president I
heard it from the mayor of Kiev. And you
know they're all on the same message. It
is about do not forget us, because
they're worried about this being a very
prolonged conflict and they know how
America is. You know we're all interested
for a while and then you know we have
kind of this challenge sometimes. So they
also presented us with their
forget-me-not.
This is made of missile shards uh and
it's made by one of their local artists.
And this is what they give everyone they
can so that we don't forget them, and so
this now hangs in the Mayor's office.
So with that I want to thank you for
your commitment on this, you'll hear more
about this later, and enjoy the rest of
the conference. Thank you