Historic ties between the city of Birmingham and the United Kingdom nation of Wales were cemented through a series of cultural exchanges and the unveiling of a new monument in Kelly Ingram Park on Friday.

Mayor Randall Woodfin and Vaughan Gething, the Welsh Minister for the Economy, signed a friendship pact between the city of Birmingham and the nation of Wales. The ceremony occurred immediately after the 60th commemoration of the bombing that killed four girls at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. The leaders also unveiled a plaque that dedicates four trees at the park in their honor.

The 1963 blast decimated the historic church and grabbed the attention of people around the world, including children 4,000 miles away in Wales.

Those students contributed money 60 years ago to build a new stained-glass window to replace one that was blown out of the sanctuary wall. What has become known as the “Wales Window” began a relationship between the two communities that was commemorated and expanded upon this week.

“The achievements Birmingham made in the civil rights era could not have happened without the support of like-minded allies. That’s what we hold dear today at this moment,” Woodfin said. “As we remember the four little girls today and their bonds of friendship, so too do we remember our bonds and our mission, and that is to preserve and protect the people of our nations from hate and injustice.”

A new generation of students and government officials from Wales spent much of the week in Alabama on a cultural exchange.

The Wales delegations included the Urdd, a national youth organization, along with delegates from the Welsh government, led by Gething. Their visit also included immersive tours throughout Birmingham and Montgomery.

The initiative was created to fulfill “a vision for dignity and for justice,” Gething said.

Read more coverage of commemorations of 1963 civil rights events.

“The trees that we will dedicate in this place today will stand as a lasting and visitable testament of our friendship,” he said at the ceremony in Kelly Ingram Park, just yards from the church. “That friendship is really love between people. Like the Wales window, the plaque is a gift from the people of wakes, a token of our enduring friendship.

The Wales-Birmingham International Friendship Pact exists to help people from your city and our nation to make an even bigger contribution to the future. New friends will grow up better equipped to call out what is wrong and more important to do what is right. Better equipped to build a fairer future.”

The visit was coordinated by Birmingham Sister Cities, a nonprofit whose mission is to connect Birmingham with other parts of the world.

“We remember the act of hatred that took the lives of four innocent little girls and caused national unrest. We also remember the support of our friends, the solidarity of the nation, and the unyielding response to move the civil rights act forward in the city of Birmingham,” said Birmingham Sister Cities board member Montiqua Mathers. “It doesn’t fall short on me that what happened 60 years ago is what has united us today – this moment, this place.”

Today’s signing ceremony concluded with the premier of a song that was commissioned for the event. Arranged by Welsh composer Christian Phillips and Birmingham natives Elias Hendricks and Byron Thomas, the composition honors the legacy of the four girls who were killed in the bombing and symbolizes the Birmingham-Wales friendship. The musical project was sponsored by the Birmingham Chapter of The Links Incorporated.

“Music unifies people in a way that words cannot,” said Shia Hendricks, a board member of Birmingham Sister Cities, who is also a member of the Birmingham Links. “The song melds together our two cultures to beautifully honor the legacy of the four girls who were killed in the bombing and are remembered here today by the dedication of the four trees marked on either side of us to embody the enduring Birmingham-Wales friendship in the memory of what happened and the hope of what’s to come.”

Also in attendance was Stephen Benjamin, President Joe Biden’s Senior Advisor and Director of the Office of Public Engagement. Benjamin called the day an opportunity to learn, share, and accept the challenge to do more.

“It’s humbling. This was a transitional moment in the history of this country,” Benjamin told AL,com. “We have to celebrate how far we’ve come but realize that we have so much more distance to go.”