DefExpo postponed: Is it because of Ukraine-Russia war? New dates will be announced soon, says MoD

With just a week to go, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has announced the postponement of the 12^th edition of DefExpo-2022.  The DefExpo scheduled to take place in Gandhinagar from March 10-14, 2022, will now be moved to another date.

 
Citing “Logistical Problems with participants’’ the decision was taken and new dates would be communicated soon, said A Bharat Bhushan Babu, official spokesperson of the Ministry of Defence. He took to the social media about the postponement of the DefExpo and this was followed by an official statement issued by the Ministry of Defence.

Is it because of the Russia-Ukraine war?

Though the Ministry of Defence in its official announcement has made no mention of the Russia-Ukraine war, the postponement of the largest defence exhibition on this side of the globe had to be shifted to another date. Infact, on the very first day of the event – March 10, 2022, a panel discussion was scheduled where the main speakers were from Russia.

Yes. A senior officer who wished to remain anonymous admitted that the ongoing war is the main reason for the event to be postponed. “Several participants from across the globe were not able to participate due to the ongoing war in their region.”

Huge loss

Cancellation charges of the hotels as well as air tickets will be a huge loss to all the participants and the visitors, indicated the officer quoted above.

About the show

According to the Ministry of Defence, around 70 countries were expected to participate in the huge event which was taking place in Gujarat this time. The event is aimed at building India’s self-reliance in the defence sector and also achieving its defence exports target of USD 5 billion by 2025. The theme of the Defence Expo 2022 was ‘India – The Emerging Defence Manufacturing Hub’.

As has been reported in Financial Express Online earlier, almost 930 exhibitors national and 121 foreign exhibitors from 63 countries registered for the event which was expected to take place in a hybrid format. The DefExpo was scheduled to take place in hybrid form where there were stalls in physical as well as virtual realms.

The expo was spread over three venues — live demonstration for the public on the Sabarmati riverfront; events and seminars at the Mahatma Mandir Convention and Exhibition Centre (MCEC); and exhibition at the Helipad Exhibition Centre (HEC).

This year, Vibrant Gujarat had to be cancelled due to the surge in COVID -19 numbers. And now, the DefExpo which was supposed to start next week is going to be rescheduled and it is an event which is almost seven times bigger than the Vibrant Gujarat. Missiles, models of submarines, different types of weapons, artillery, armoured vehicles, drones and much more were expected to be showcased. And more than 70,000 people were expected to visit.

One of the biggest programmes which were scheduled to take place was the Second Indian-African Defence Dialogue — “India-Africa: Adopting Strategy for synergizing and strengthening defence and security cooperation.