SAVANNAH, Ga. — Savannah has two new friends overseas. Mayor Van R. Johnson II signed friendship agreements with the port city of Dunkerque, France, and with the Caribbean island nation of Curaçao during a recent run of international trips, the city announced this week.
In France, Johnson sat down with Dunkerque Mayor Patrice Vergriete. Both cities live off their harbors, and the deal lists shipping and trade, infrastructure, tourism and readiness for environmental threats as areas where they could work together.
In Curaçao, the mayor met Prime Minister Gilmar Pisas, members of Parliament and the U.S. consul general before signing a pact with Economic Development Minister Roderick Middelhof. That agreement names education, tourism, trade, job training, maritime work, coastal research and economic growth as possible fields. On the Savannah side, the Georgia Ports Authority, Visit Savannah, Savannah State, Savannah Tech and the Pin Point Heritage Museum have been flagged as groups that could take part. The tie traces back to the 2024 visit to Savannah by the Dutch king and queen, and bigger delegations among all three places are expected in 2027.
Before the signings, Johnson was in Geneva, Switzerland, as one of only two American mayors at the sixth United Nations Forum of Mayors. He was also a speaker at the Urban Transformation Summit held by the World Economic Forum, where he pointed to the city’s Recreation Reimagined program and its spending on parks, neighborhoods and youth.
The new pacts join a list that already includes Limerick, Ireland, signed in 2025, and Accra, Ghana, a partner city since 2024. Johnson has said the paperwork alone is not the win; the payoff, he said, comes from turning the ties into real opportunities for local residents.
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