Ukraine has rolled out an impressive display of arms and military equipment at an international defense show in Jakarta in an effort to sign a number of contracts with Indonesia, the head of a Ukrainian state-run defense corporation said on Friday.
“Ukraine views Indonesia, which is aspiring to the role of a regional leader, as a very important market,” Petro Fedoruk, deputy director of Ukraine’s UkrOboronProm, said at the Indo Defence 2012 Expo & Forum exhibition that opened on Wednesday in Indonesia.
“Indonesia has set a course to deeply modernize its armed forces and Ukraine could help it considerably in that regard. So we are at the right time in the right place,” he added.
Ukraine’s wares include the Skit antitank system, the Oplot and Bulat tanks, the BTR-3 and BTR-4 armored personnel carriers, and the Kolchuga radar system, as well as information on products from more than 140 enterprises affiliated with UkrOboronProm that have licenses to manufacture and export arms and military equipment.
Indonesia will also need an export credit and technology transfers, Fedoruk said.
It is also the first time another post-Soviet country, Belarus, is taking part in Indo Defence.
Belarus has brought a variety of weapon systems, Alexander Vernikovsky, head of the state arms exporter Beltechexport, said, adding the display covered all branches of the military except the navy.
He did not specify any of them but said the country’s presentation was aimed at demonstrating its “capabilities in areas that could be of interest to the Indonesian military.”
Indo Defence will run through November 10, 2012. This year’s exhibition, the fifth in the series, will host over 500 exhibitors from 40 countries and 20,000 delegates and trade visitors, exhibition organizers said.
The exhibition will provide “a platform for international defense industry to showcase a full range of military products and technology to meet the increasing demand of the local defense industry,” organizers said.
