Tourism Minister Thong Khon, who is also president of the National Olympic Committee, and Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, shake hands on the sidelines of the Olympic Council of Asia’s General Assembly in the Vietnamese city of Danang on Sunday.

The minister held a series of discussions on the sidelines of the assembly, most notably with Bach and OCA president Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah. Among the topics discussed was Cambodia’s wish to one day host the popular Asian Beach Games. NOCC officials indicated to the Post that Bach expressed a wish to visit Cambodia in the near future.

The OCA has envisaged a road map as a prelude to moving its headquarters out of Kuwait after the Kuwaiti government cancelled the diplomatic agreement with the OCA in November last year following the IOC suspension of the Kuwait National Olympic Committee.

The road map calls for a series of regional offices in Delhi (India), Almaty (Kazakhstan), Bangkok (Thailand), Kuwait and Nansha (China) to represent its five zones. The OCA would also have sub-offices in Jakarta to help Indonesia’s preparations for the 2018 Asian Games and in the Swiss city of Lausanne.