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Saudi Arabia’s deep pockets and Italy’s soft power were on display at rival events in Paris this week, as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni pitched their capitals’ bids to host the World Expo 2030 — a world fair that attracts millions of visitors and billions of dollars in investment.

Guests at a Saudi reception held at Paris’ cavernous Grand Palais Éphémère exhibition hall on Tuesday were treated to mocktails, stuffed dates and a curious spectacle to showcase the oil-rich kingdom. First, there were sword-wielding traditional male singers. Then, an orchestra played as projectors beamed images of actress Sofia Vergara, of Modern Family fame, shimmying through a Riyadh shopping mall in a pink bustier dress.

The following evening, Meloni appeared at a reception in the flower-filled garden of Italy’s embassy in Paris to woo the same delegates who will vote later this year on the winning Expo city.

She introduced a 30-minute sound and light show, seemingly juxtaposing Italian humanist values to those of authoritarian Saudi Arabia. A pianist with a blue mohawk played alongside a string quartet while white-clad dancers performed and a voice intoned: “Men, women, ideas coming together” and “What is best for humanity?”

Guests were treated to Prosecco and platters of cured meats, fresh pasta and gelato. “Ah, I love Rome,” sighed one German delegate, as if imagining himself already there in 2030.

The winner of the global popularity contest will be selected in November through a secret ballot of 179 countries. South Korea’s port city of Busan is also on the short list and President Yoon Suk Yeol was in Paris this week to advocate for his country’s bid. But with the 2025 Expo being held in Osaka in Japan, Busan is considered a long shot for 2030.

Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa had pitched to host the Expo before Russia’s invasion in February 2022 and submitted its application in autumn. But with the war raging, it has now been ruled out.

This leaves Italy’s capital Rome and the Saudi capital Riyadh as the two frontrunners. France already backed Riyadh nearly a year ago, while Brazil this week became the latest country to announce its support for Rome.

“There is no real criteria for the vote,” said Pascal Boniface, an international relations expert at French think-tank Iris. “It’s really the bilateral relationship that counts — and the insistence and pressure that the candidate country applies.”

For Prince Mohammed, securing the Expo for Riyadh is part of an overall effort to boost the kingdom’s influence, as it seeks to reduce economic dependence on fossil fuels, position itself as a financial hub and broaden its tourism industry beyond religious pilgrims.

Having utilised Saudi Arabia’s $650bn sovereign wealth fund to snap up top football clubs and players such as Cristiano Ronaldo and gain sway over global golf, the Expo would be another glittering prize.

Critics say Prince Mohammed is using such events to clean up his country’s image after the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of Saudi security agents inside the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul.

French president Emmanuel Macron helped rehabilitate the prince by hosting him at the Élysée Palace last July, where Macron backed the Saudi bid for the Expo.

Human rights groups have already slammed the prospect of an Expo in Riyadh as a “whitewash” of the kingdom’s “abysmal human rights record, both past and present”, including its silencing of dissidents, repression of women and frequent use of the death penalty.

“He wants to show Saudi Arabia is open to the world and get people to stop talking about Khashoggi, Yemen or the repression in the kingdom,” said Boniface. “Winning the event would be another sign that Saudi Arabia simply cannot be treated as a pariah state by the rest of the world.”

By contrast, Rome had a compelling case for hosting an inclusive and inspiring world fair, said Giampiero Massolo, a retired diplomat now heading the Italian bid committee. He added that such an event should not merely be a tool to “promote one single country or one single person”.

“It is our belief that expos are there in order to show what the world can achieve if countries work together,” said Massolo. As part of its pitch, Rome is proposing an Expo powered entirely by solar energy.

Italian cities have form in hosting such events: Milan was revitalised by hosting the 2015 Expo and Massolo said Italy now hoped the “big unifying project” would similarly reinvigorate Rome.

Asked about France not backing Rome’s bid, Meloni said she was “not in a position to judge others’ choices” and remained determined to win the contest.

“I believe that Rome’s candidacy is an excellent choice that [many] countries can still make, so my focus is on those,” she added.

An Élysée official said this week that Saudi Arabia won French support because it was the first and only country to have asked — and hinted that Paris also had other interests. “We also wanted in this way to induce Saudi Arabia to make commitments to us on subjects which were otherwise important to us,” said the person without providing specific details.

France imports oil and gas from Saudi Arabia as well as exporting aircraft and defence equipment, with Riyadh pledging this week to buy a significant amount of jets. Saudi Arabia also plays a key diplomatic role in the Middle East where France has aims it is pushing for.

Boniface said other nations were likely to make similarly self-interested calculations. “Human rights doesn’t usually play into the decision-making,” he said. “The economic aspects really matter and that’s why Saudi had such a strong hand to play.”

If the Saudi bid emerges victorious, Boniface said, “it will mean they will have offered contracts and forms of compensation to countries that back it — this is not corruption, but just implicitly how things work”.

Additional reporting by Adrienne Klasa in Paris