Hollande presents France's bid for World Expo 2025

French President Francois Hollande officially presented France's bid for the World Expo 2025 on Tuesday in a letter to the Secretary General of the International Exhibition Bureau Vincente G. Loscertales.

The theme France has chosen for the 2025 Expo is "The knowledge to be shared, the planet to be protected", according to Hollande.

"It is a matter of improving our models of development in the fields of health, education, culture and the environment in the continuation of the mobilization which brought in December 2015 the Paris agreement on climate change," he explained.

Hollande said the core of this exhibition will be located in Ile-de-France, and in addition to existing public transport, a new 200-km-long express railway network will be set up, enabling greater Paris to be improved in 2024.

At the same time, a direct link between Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport and the Gare de l'Est station in the center of the city will be put into operation, he added.

"France has a special relationship with universal exhibitions. Those of the 19th century -- by their ambitions of all forms of progress, economic, social, cultural and scientific -- have left a legacy that forever marks their memories, and proves once again, the commitment of our country to the universal," the French president noted.

He said the candidature is that of the whole France, adding that several French metropolises have already expressed their wish to organize thematic forums. Endit