Is there a public list of 29 countries that voted for the South Korean city of Busan to host the World Expo in 2030? No, that's not true: The member states of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) voted anonymously and chose Riyadh in Saudi Arabia to host the World Expo 2030.
The claim appeared in post on Instagram (archived here) where it was published by @sanggeun5245 on November 29, 2023. It opened in Korean translated by Lead Stories staff:
World Expo... these are the 29 countries which voted for us:
Greece, The Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain,
Iceland, Austria, Ukraine, Israel, United Kingdom, France, Poland, Turkey, United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentine, Uruguay, Gambia, Japan, Austraila, New Zealand, Singapore and Republic of Korea
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: Instagram screenshot taken on Tue Dec 19 04:44:09 2023 UTC)
This claim is false, as the Bureau International des Expositions uses a secret voting system. The BIE explains on its website:
Eligible and present Member States, represented by government-appointed delegates, elected the host country in a secret ballot using electronic voting, on the principle of one country, one vote. Securing 119 votes in the first round, Saudi Arabia was elected outright, as it received the two-thirds majority required.
Busan in South Korea was in second place with just 29 votes. South Korean President Yoon Seok-Yeol has publicly apologized for the failure of the Expo bid. Amid national disappointment over the result, some Koreans began circulating an alleged "list of our true friends". But three countries on this list - Australia, Canada and Singapore -- are not even members of BIE.
