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| Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, left, shakes hands with International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach during their meeting at Olympic House in Lausanne, Switzerland, Oct. 24. Yonhap |
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon has met with International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach in Lausanne, Switzerland, and promoted his city's bid to host the 2036 Summer Olympics.
The meeting took place Monday (Swiss time) at the IOC headquarters, Olympic House, as Oh was visiting the Swiss city to attend an annual meeting of the World Union of Olympic Cities as part of his 11-day trip to Europe.
City officials said the Seoul mayor voiced the city's "strong will" to host the 2036 Olympics during the meeting, saying hosting the games again nearly half a century after the 1988 Seoul Olympics would create a great deal of synergy.
He also outlined the city's ongoing 2.1 trillion-won ($1.46 billion) project to build a large-scale sports and entertainment complex in southeastern Seoul, saying the complex can be used as an instrumental facility for the 2036 Olympics.
Bach responded that Seoul appears to be prepared to host an Olympics, referring to his recent visit to Seoul and briefings he received on the project.
Bach came to Seoul last week to attend a general meeting of the Association of National Olympic Committees. He and Oh had met twice during the event in Seoul.
The South Korean capital is pushing to host the 2036 Summer Olympics alone since its previous bid to co-host the 2032 Summer Olympics with the North Korean capital Pyongyang fizzled out.
According to the officials, China, India, Indonesia, Qatar and Turkey have so far expressed plans to join the race to host the 2036 games, with many other nations, including Germany, Hungary, Russia and Spain, also showing interest.
On the possibility of joining hands with North Korea to launch a bid to co-host the Olympics, a city official said Seoul will remain open to the option although the possibility of co-hosting the event is highly uncertain due to the strained inter-Korean relations. (Yonhap)
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