For many, having 10 sisters might not be cause for excitement, but for the city of Columbus it is.

Columbus is a part of the Sister Cities International program, pairing U.S. cities with others around the world in an effort to foster global relations and promote cultural understanding. The capital city welcomed three new sister cities this week – Ahmedabad, India; Zapopan, Mexico; and Kumasi, Ghana – bringing the total to 10.

Ed Fisher, executive director of Columbus Sister Cities International, said the whole idea of the sister city movement was to promote citizen diplomacy so the potential of future disasters and world wars are greatly reduced.

Columbus Sister Cities International hosted a luncheon Thursday that featured Mexican cuisine, a mariachi band and traditional Ghana music to celebrate the new additions.

Mayor Michael B. Coleman spoke about his recent trip to Israel, during which he visited Herzilya, one of Columbus’ sister cities.

According to the SCI Web site, the idea of sister cities was proposed by President Eisenhower at a White House conference on citizen diplomacy. Columbus became one of the first cities to participate, adding Genoa, Italy as its first sister city in 1955. Genoa is the birthplace of Christopher Columbus, the city’s namesake. The statue of Columbus that sits outside City Hall was a gift from Genoa. Other sister cities include Dresden, Germany; Hefei, China; Odense, Denmark; Tainan City, Taiwan; and Seville, Spain, where Christopher Columbus is buried.

Columbus now has sister cities on every continent, except Australia, with this week’s additions.

Columbus is regularly involved in government expertise exchanges with its sister cities, where ideas are shared about how to combat local problems. Examples include discussions of violence against women, child abuse and vaccination program development. This year, representatives from Mexico will visit to discuss gang violence.

The sister cities are also important to Ohio State. In July, representatives from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Ahmedabad will visit OSU to meet with Melissa Torres, director of international studies at the Fisher College of Business.

“We’re hoping to form a student exchange with OSU with the IIM … right now the IIM only has two similar programs, one is with Harvard and one is with MIT, and I’m hoping that Ohio State will be the third,” Fisher said.

Columbus is looking to add an 11th sister city later this year in Japan. CSI is working closely with OSU’s Institute of Japanese Studies to choose a Japanese city.

“In the first 52 years of our organization we added seven (cities), and we’re going to add three for sure this year, maybe even a fourth,” Fisher said. “We’ll probably have about one a year for the next five years.”

Anna Gerber can be reached at [email protected].