The Honorable Judge William Churchill traveled to Bandung, Indonesia April 21 – 27, 2015 as the sole representative of Fort Worth and as the guest of the Mayor of Bandung, Ridwan Kamil, for the celebration and commemoration of the Asian-African Conference first held in Bandung in 1955.  Judge Churchill hand delivered a congratulatory letter and gift from Mayor Betsy Price on behalf of the citizens of Fort Worth.

Also known as the Bandung Conference, the Asian African Conference was a meeting of Asian and African states, most of which were newly independent at that time. The twenty-five countries that participated represented nearly one-quarter of the Earth’s land surface and a total population of 1.5 billion people. The conference was organized by Indonesia, Burma, Pakistan, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and India to promote Afro-Asian economic and cultural cooperation and to oppose colonialism by any nation.

To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Conference in 2005, 106 countries’ heads of state and government attended a new Asian-African Summit in Bandung that yielded agreements forming a strategic partnership commitments between Asia and Africa, standing on three pillars: political solidarity, economic cooperation, and socio-cultural relations.  Conferences are now held every two years.

The 2015 conference was a significant event and Judge Churchill participated in various activities representing Fort Worth, including cultural exhibitions and performances, the Festival Parade, Festival of Nations, and discussions surrounding topics of cooperation.

Fort Worth has the distinction of being the first U.S. city to partner with a city in Indonesia. Bandung was signed as Fort Worth’s 5th official sister city in 1990. Since that time exchanges have included university-based nursing programs, educational and professional training programs in municipal waste water, security and waste management and several business connections initiated by Pier 1 Imports, Bell Helicopter and Lockheed Martin.