New Delhi: While the government has cited “logistical problems experienced by participants” as the prime basis for postponing the 12th edition of Defence Expo scheduled to have been held in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar from March 10 to March 14, the Ukraine crisis that suddenly burst into the scene on February 24 would have been the obvious unstated reason. Announcing the development, the defence ministry on Friday said the new dates would be announced “in due course”.
The PMO had been monitoring the DefExpo 22—to be held for the first time in the PM’s native state—on a daily basis. DefExpo is also Asia’s largest exhibition on land, naval, air and homeland security systems. Plans of defence majors from Russia, US, European nations and others expecting to set shop at Gandhinagar to sell their wares have been badly hit by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict that is showing no signs of a resolution yet.
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Stringent economic sanctions announced against Russia and its expulsion from the international SWIFT banking system would have made the presence of Russian companies—which have had a major presence in DefExpo—redundant. Also with the air space suddenly becoming much more restricted due to greater usage of military aircraft and much busier due to the ferrying of military equipment with NATO forces rushing to Ukraine’s aid, air travel would be definitely hit.
To be fair, the government had somewhat tried to ward off logistical challenges by announcing that Def Expo 2022 was to be a hybrid affair with both physical and virtual stalls. Expecting a footfall of about 12 lakh visitors, the 12th Defence Expo with a two-pronged effort of ‘Make in India’ and ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ was to be spread in more than 1,00,000 square metres of space across three venues. It would have seen 78 participating nations, 39 minister level delegations and 1000-plus registered exhibitors, with more than 3,000 delegates expected to participate in the various seminars and discussions.
Begun in 2000, the main aim of the biennial DefExpo is to showcase and promote the export potential of the Indian aerospace and defence industry. While the first eight editions were held in New Delhi, the ninth one was held in Goa, the tenth one Chennai and then the 11th one in Lucknow in 2020.
PTI
