Weapons companies from Russia, China, and Turkey will come to Minsk
The international exhibition of weapons and military Equipment “MILEX-2021” will be held for the tenth anniversary time in Minsk from 23 to 26 June 2021. But, compared to last year, this time many Western countries refused to participate in the Minsk Defense Exhibition.
Photo: Frame from the video
MILEX is the largest international arms show. The exhibition is held every two years. The goal is to present the products of the Belarusian defense industry in the field of high technologies, as well as to demonstrate the potential of military enterprises. The exhibition is organized by the State Military-Industrial Committee and the Ministry of Defense of Belarus. The exhibition program also includes an International Scientific conference.
In 2019, 59 official delegations from 35 countries visited MILEX. Hundreds of companies from many countries presented their products. However, in 2021, the scale of the foreign representation has sharply decreased. This was due to a new package of Western sanctions that were imposed on Belarus after the 2019 presidential elections, mass demonstrations of the opposition.
The situation with sanctions worsened after an Irish airline plane made an emergency landing in Minsk, and two of its passengers, Roman Protasevich and Sofia Sapega, were detained. Western countries have imposed restrictions on the flights of their aircraft in the airspace of Belarus, and also banned the flights of the Belarusian airline to Europe. The sanctions also affected the Minsk Defense Exhibition.
In 2019, companies from Brazil, Germany, Italy, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Ukraine, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and other countries came to Minsk for MILEX. In 2021, most of these companies decided not to participate in the Belarusian exhibition.
Only companies from Russia, China, Turkey, Iraq and Uzbekistan have announced their participation in MILEX-2021.
In turn, Rosoboronexport announced its broad participation in MILEX-2021 and the company’s course for military-technical cooperation with Belarus. Director General of Rosoboronexport Alexander Mikheev said that it is proposed to implement joint projects in the field of production of military equipment and expand the areas of interaction.