Military delegations of Sudan, UAE, Tajikistan, Libya, and Iran arrived at armament exhibition in Minsk (Updated)

MILEX 2009, an armaments and material expo, opened in the capital of Belarus on May 19 attracting 26 foreign delegations.

Welcoming the participants of the expo, Belarusian Prime Minister Syarhei Sidorski told MILEX 2009 is “a traditional place for business meetings and search for business partners. Our defensive products are competitive with foreign ones,” Interfax quotes the prime minister.

MILEX 2009 takes place in BelExpo exhibition pavilion on May 19–22. The opening was attended by Yury Zhadobin, state secretary of the Security Council of Belarus; Pavel Borodin, state secretary of the Belarus-Russia “union state”; Nikolai Bordyuzha, secretary general of the CSTO; ministries of defence of Ukraine and Sudan; heads of general staffs of Azerbaijan and the UAE; head of the General Armaments Department of the People's Liberation Army of China General Colonel Chang Wanquan; representatives of other military organizations.

A military delegation of the United Arab Emirates heading by head of the General Staff of the UAE Armed Forces Hamad Mohammed Tani al-Rumeisi arrived in Minsk with a one-day visit. Head of the Belarusian defence ministry Leanid Maltsau had a meeting with the UAE delegation.

MILEX shows models of hardware and software, data transmitting equipment. A new line of Belarusian defence plants – developing and producing electronic intelligence, electronic warfare in air and on ground. The exhibition also demonstrates possibilities of Belarusian plants in modernizing planes and helicopters.

The participants of MILEX 2009 are 145 exhibitors. Of them are 110 from Belarus, 29 from Russia, Ukraine and Armenia, delegations from 26 more states including China, Sudan, Turkey, Bulgaria, Poland, Egypt, Libya, India, the UAE, Iran, Peru and others. The program of the exhibition embraces the 4th international scientific conference to highlight the issues of defence and security, creation of conditions for further development of military and technical cooperation and integration of states in the area.

The organizers say the aim of the exhibition is demonstrations products of defence plants and enterprises turning out double purpose products, promoting establishing ties between military equipment producers and customers, signing contracts in armament modernization area, and popularizing military hardware and raising the army prestige.