Because Vietnam wants to buy less weapons from Russia
Vietnam's first military trade show held in Hanoi as the country seeks to reduce its reliance on Russian weapons and launch a push to export locally made weapons
Vietnam eases dependence on Russia with its first defense fair.
The country hosted Videx (Vietnam International Defense Expo) at Gia Lam Airport in the capital Hanoi from December 8 to 10 to promote international defense cooperation, build trust between Vietnam and other countries, and introduce the nascent industry to the world of the Vietnamese defense.
About 170 organizations attended the event, including Western companies such as US defense contractor Lockheed Martin and France's Nexter and defense groups from Israel, India, Japan and the United Arab Emirates, Reuters reports.
The Southeast Asian nation is one of the world's 20 largest arms buyers amid ongoing tensions with China, with an annual arms import budget estimated at around $1 billion and set to grow, according to GlobalData. About 60-70% of Vietnam's military assets are of Soviet or Russian origin. For historical, political and institutional reasons, Russian weapons are highly attractive to the military, compared to those of other countries. Vietnam has operated Soviet-style military systems since the beginning of the Cold War, recalls The Diplomat .
And Russia was Vietnam's top arms supplier from 2017 to 2021, accounting for 56 percent of Hanoi's total imports in this category, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) , which tracks military spending. global. In second place is Israel (19%), followed by South Korea (6.6%).
However, the war in Ukraine appears to have hastened the diversification in military supplies for Vietnam. SIPRI also found that Russian arms exports decreased between 2012-2016 and 2017-2021, partly due to a 71% decrease in Vietnamese arms exports.
All the details.
VIETNAM ONE OF RUSSIA'S MAJOR ARMAMENT BUYERS
Russia has been Vietnam's main supplier of weapons and defense systems for decades. This has made Vietnam a major buyer of Russian weapons, according to data from the independent Swedish institute Sipri.
But analysts say things are changing as Vietnam struggles to become more self-sufficient, obtain advanced equipment that Russia can't supply and face Western pressure to cut back on arms purchases from Moscow during its invasion of Ukraine .
THE OBJECTIVE OF THE VIETNAMESE DEFENSE EXPO
The three-day event in Hanoi will help Vietnam "diversify supply channels and sources of technologies to produce military equipment for the country's armies and for exports," Hanoi's defense ministry announced in a statement to Vietnam. November.
Vietnam is negotiating possible deals to import satellites and other dual-use items from partners other than Russia, according to Ha Hoang Hop, a military procurement expert and visiting fellow at the Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.
This would accelerate a downward trend in Russian arms imports, the value of which fell to just $72 million last year (30% of total imports) from a 2014 peak of $1 billion, which that year it was almost 90% of the total, according to Sipri data. Imports from Russia have declined every year since, except last year, when they recovered slightly after the 2020 nadir. That year, the COVID-19 pandemic reduced Vietnam's military imports to just $32 million. $9 million of which was Russian weapons.
HANOI LOOKS AT EUROPE, EAST ASIA, INDIA, ISRAEL AND THE USA
As emerges from the Sipri data, in recent years Vietnam has purchased military equipment from new suppliers, including the United States, Israel, the Netherlands and South Korea. And precisely with its military exhibition, Vietnam has shown that it is addressing to suppliers from Europe, East Asia, India, Israel and the United States. It has also boosted its domestic military industry with support from Israel and other partners, and hopes to export weapons, analysts and officials said.
For analysts India, Israel and Eastern European countries are better positioned as alternative suppliers because they can provide weapons compatible with Russian systems that still account for 80% of Vietnam's arsenal.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/perche-il-vietnam-vuole-comprare-meno-armi-dalla-russia/ on Mon, 26 Dec 2022 07:24:23 +0000.