The Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), the intergovernmental organisation supervising World Expos, has announced that it will hold a virtual meeting of its executive committee on 21 April 2020 to discuss options for a change of dates for World Expo 2020 Dubai.

The Expo 2020 steering committee, comprising officials from the UAE and other participating nations, recommended the delay after conducting a virtual meeting on 30 March, as cases of coronavirus (Covid-19) rapidly increased across the world. 

Members of the BIE executive committee will discuss the UAE government's request to postpone the Expo. The UAE has proposed changing the dates to 1 October 2021-31 March 2022.

• Expo delay is the best decision at a bad time

The meeting will take place with the participation of members of the committee – delegates of 12 elected member states – as well as Dimitri Kerkentzes, the secretary general of the BIE.

As per BIE's website, the 12 member states that are part of the executive committee are: Finland, France (presidency of the committee), Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Monaco, New Zealand, Russia, Senegal, Spain and Switzerland.

A final decision on a change of dates can only be made by a two-thirds majority vote of BIE member states, as stipulated by Article 28 of the 1928 Paris Convention.