UrBC, Moscow, June 14, 2018. Yekaterinburg (Russia), Osaka (Japan), and Baku (Azerbaijan) are now entering the final round of competing for the privilege of hosting World EXPO 2025; the hosting country will be selected in November 2018. The decision was taken by the BIE during their 163d General Assembly in Paris, TASS reports.

‘The Assembly approved of the BIE Executive Committee’s recommendations for all the three applications the committee deemed ‘viable and compliant with the BIE’s respective requirements.’ The recommendations followed the committee’s processing of the applications in March and April 2018,’ TASS says.

The committee had to decide on each application’s feasibility, including the respective countries’ financial backup of the exhibition, the appeal of the chosen theme, the location, and the plans to use the location afterwards.