Ukraine war: many arms producing countries vie for influence and contracts with wealthy Gulf Arab countries
Riyadh:
As the sad reality of war in Eastern Europe unfolds, visitors to a defense show in Saudi Arabia got a surreal view of the latest Ukrainian and Russian military hardware competing for attention in an antique exhibition hall.
For Ukraine’s state arms exporter and importer Maxim Potimkov, who stood alone among his country’s armored vehicles, the sale was the furthest thing from his mind.
“I came for the show because there must be someone and we have a lot of equipment here,” he told Reuters news agency. “More than 50 people were expected from Ukraine.”
Potimkov, from Kiev, was traveling to Ukraine from a trade show in the United Arab Emirates when Russia launched its offensive last week, and had to cancel his plans. Now back in the Middle East, he works at a booth promoting Ukraine’s Kozark 7 and Kozark 2M tactical armored vehicles and anti-drone systems.
Meanwhile, in an adjacent hall, Russian weapons makers were displaying Moscow’s hardware, including anti-aircraft weapons and air defense systems. Representatives of Russian industry, when contacted by Reuters, declined to discuss economic sanctions imposed by the West in response to the war.
Hundreds of visitors, including regional government, military and corporate officials at the defense show in Riyadh, surveyed this display of power from countries around the world, even as residents of the Ukrainian coastal city of Mariupol were the first to own such hardware. Experienced awesome power.
Efforts to evacuate people from Mariupol – which have endured days of Russian shelling that have left people without heat, electricity and water – failed for the second day in a row on Sunday after a ceasefire plan failed.
Many arms-producing nations vie for influence and contracts from wealthy Gulf Arab countries, particularly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which have moved to diversify their defense partners and develop their own industries. .
Saudi Arabia leads a military coalition, which includes the UAE, which has been battling the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen for seven years.
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