This was not the mayor’s first international foray. In 2005, the name of his town was changed, from South Belmar to the more glamorous (and better for housing prices) Lake Como. To celebrate the change, Mayor Chiaravallo invited officials from Italy to the Jersey Shore, and later he traveled to Lecco, on Lake Como, and addressed the municipal council there.

“I gave the whole speech in Italian,” he said. “I got a real round of applause.”

For years, American mayors have looked overseas to attract trade in countries like Russia, China, France and Saudi Arabia. Sister-city arrangements have broadened that contact, encouraging tourism and educational exchanges.

But Mayor Chiaravallo’s appeal to the Kuwaitis seemed a distinct brand of solo diplomacy, reminiscent of the 1970s, when American teachers, bankers and military contractors — smelling profit, like the mayor, but also seeking adventure — often headed off, families in tow, to the Persian Gulf.

Relations between New Jersey and the gulf region have been more recently defined by the Dubai Ports World controversy, when politicians here opposed a federal deal for an Arab-owned company to run American ports, saying it was a security threat.

Few here have raised the specter of terrorism, but the notion of foreigners being asked to help defray the town’s expenses has grated on local pride, said Hank Schroeder, a bartender at Bar Anticipation. Mr. Schroeder, though, quickly added that he supported the mayor’s initiative. “It’s a sign of the times,” he said. “There’s no money available on the local level.”

On the banks of Lake Como, a small body of water at the southern edge of town, Philip Leone and a friend were fishing bluegill, yellow perch and a few crappies out of the cold waters without exerting much effort. “They could use new buildings,” Mr. Leone pointed out. “Besides,” he added of Kuwait, “didn’t we bail them out during the first gulf war?”

That very thought had occurred to Mayor Chiaravallo in early 2000 when he first wrote to Kuwait asking for money. It was the beginning of an undertaking he clearly grew to relish, happily recounting the tale one recent morning in the large room where the Borough Council meets.