Southeast Asia keen to boost military technical cooperation with Belarus

Southeast Asian countries have an interest in expanding military technical cooperation with Belarus.
Belarusian defense companies took part in the 2018 Defense Services Asia Exhibition and Conference (DSA) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. “The negotiations held during the exhibition showed that Southeast Asian countries are interested in developing military technical cooperation with Belarus. Several meetings were held to evaluate the current state and outline promising avenues of military technical cooperation, discuss the formation and development of a legal framework for this cooperation,” the press service noted. According to the State Military Industrial Committee, the participation of Belarusian organizations in DSA 2018 became an important stage in military technical cooperation of Belarus with Malaysia and other countries of the Asia-Pacific region. The negotiations laid the basis for promoting Belarus' products in the arms market of Malaysia and Asia-Pacific countries, and sealing deals to sell Belarusian military goods into these states. The enterprise Belspetsvneshtechnika was the collective organizer of the Belarusian exhibition which featured products by KB Radar (the managing company of the holding company Radiolocation Systems), 140 Repair Plant, and BelOMO Holding Company. The product choice included the latest Belarusian advances in firearms, lightly armored vehicles and mobility solutions. Optic, optic-electronic products, radars, radio warfare products for ground and aerial defense, solutions for repairing and upgrading short-range air-to-air guided aviation weapons will be presented. Belarus also presented promising high-precision anti-tank weapon systems at the expo. The joint stand of the State Military Industrial Committee was visited by over 300 specialists from 17 countries, including Germany, China, Norway, Malaysia, the UAE, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, France, and South Korea. DSA 2018 brought together more than 1,500 companies from 60 countries and 350 official delegations. The Belarusian delegation at the expo was led by Igor Demidenko, First Deputy Chairman of the Military Industrial Committee. He had negotiations with officials from military department and armed forces of Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia. He visited the stands of the Chinese companies Alit and Norinco and held talks with their top executives on the topical issues of Belarus-China military technical cooperation.