“Mr Prabowo’s passion for sports drives his vision for Indonesia to host global events again,” Mr Erick said.
Mr Prabowo will take over as president in October from Mr Joko Widodo, who expressed Indonesia’s aspiration to host the Olympics in November 2022 during the G20 Summit in Bali.
At the time, Mr Widodo expressed readiness for his country to host the 2036 Olympics in the new capital Nusantara, which is being developed to replace Jakarta as the country’s administrative capital and slated to be fully completed in 2045.
After the 2022 G20 Summit, the IOC confirmed Indonesia’s inclusion in the continuous dialogue phase of the bid process, reported GamesBids.com, an independent site with information about the Olympics bid process.
As part of this phase, an Indonesian delegation with observer status would visit the Paris Games, and monitor preparations by the Los Angeles 2028 organising committee, GamesBids.com reported.
According to the IOC’s website, the continuous dialogue phase is flexible and does not require any financial commitment, written submission or other legal or financial guarantees.
The IOC conducts a feasibility study to assess the state of progress of a project, help the interested party make improvements, and assist the IOC’s executive board with its strategic decision-making.
Indonesia is also keen on hosting the 2030 Youth Olympics, NOC Chairman Raja told CNA on Monday (Jul 29). “We are chasing the 2036 Olympics but the priority today is the 2030 Youth Olympics, which is closer,” he said.
Countries that are keen to host the 2030 Youth Olympics include Thailand, India and Mexico.
Besides the IOC’s Mr Bach, Mr Prabowo and Mr Erick – who is chairman of the Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) – also held discussions with international football governing body FIFA’s president Gianni Infantino.
The talks focused on enhancing soccer collaboration and Mr Infantino praised Indonesia’s success in hosting the U-17 World Cup and acknowledged the establishment of FIFA’s new regional office in Jakarta.
“We discussed FIFA’s fantastic working relationship with Indonesia and @pssi and the fantastic progress that has been made by his beautiful country in recent times. We also talked about leveraging football’s popularity among the youth population,” Mr Infantino stated in his Instagram post on Sunday.
“Indonesia was a fantastic host of the FIFA U-17 World Cup last year and everyone who visited, including myself, was struck by the warmth and hospitality. It was also clear that Indonesians live and breathe football,” he added.