PARIS:
Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh has won the right to host the Expo 2030 world exhibition, voting results showed on Tuesday, in another diplomatic victory for a Gulf country after last year’s soccer World Cup in Qatar.
The South Korean port city of Busan and Rome in Italy were also in the running to host the five-yearly event that attracts millions of visitors and billions of dollars in investment.
Riyadh won 119 votes, Busan 29 and Rome 17, according to results from 182 members of the Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions (BIE). Saudi Arabia needed two-thirds of the vote to win from the first round.
The Italian contestants were scathing in their frustration.
“This huge result for Saudi Arabia was unexpected in these proportions,” Giabiero Masolo, head of Italy’s Expo bidding, told reporters. “It’s no longer about value, it’s about transactions.
“Yesterday was the football championship, tomorrow will be the Olympic Games,” he added.
But South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol congratulated Saudi Arabia on the victory, calling the Gulf state a “key partner” and adding that his nation would share resources and experience gained to help Riyadh carry out a successful event.
Riyadh had enlisted soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, who plays for Saudi Arabia’s Al-Nassr club, to persuade members in a video aired ahead of the vote. Riyadh aims to host the event between October 2030 and March 2031.
The victory is the icing on the cake for de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s ambitious Vision 2030 plan, which aims to wean the country off its dependence on oil.
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“We had a fantastic group of ministers going around the world, engaging our counterparts in a very, very active way to understand what they expected, what they were looking for and what we have to offer to win their trust,” the Saudi foreign minister said. said Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.
Critics say Prince Mohammed wants to use the event to improve his country’s image after the killing of prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, which Western leaders believe was ordered by the crown prince.
The three delegations have gone into horse-trading overdrive in recent months, staging explosive lobbying events in the French capital.
Saudi Arabia, in particular, had won French support, irritating Rome. Advisers to President Emmanuel Macron said the French support was in return for Saudi assistance on other issues at the heart of French diplomatic priorities.
A European official said it had to do with Lebanon, without elaborating.
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