City-to-city diplomacy with Taiwan — Radio Taiwan International
I am a guest on Taiwan vs. the World, hosted by Julien Oeuillet on Radio Taiwan International, Taiwan’s international public broadcaster. Broadcast from Taipei in around fifteen languages worldwide, it is the island’s main voice abroad — covering news, society and international affairs as seen from Taiwan.
The topic: city-to-city diplomacy
The conversation focuses on city diplomacy — city-to-city and metropolis-to-metropolis cooperation — as a channel for developing relations with Taiwan.
When state-level diplomacy runs into the constraints Beijing imposes on Taiwan’s international space, local authorities offer another route: twinning agreements, partnerships between metropolitan areas, and economic, academic and cultural exchanges. This decentralised cooperation builds concrete, lasting ties precisely where official channels remain blocked.
Drawing on the Lyon experience, I discuss the work still to be done to keep these relations alive: building partnerships between comparable territories, sharing expertise (energy transition, transport, cultural policy), and embedding these exchanges over the long term rather than as one-off gestures. City diplomacy is not meant to replace state diplomacy, but to support it — quietly, methodically, and close to the people.