Companies from Iran, Israel, China, Russia and the United States will showcase military equipment at an arms expo in Hanoi in December, Vietnam’s defense ministry said on Tuesday, a rare case of geopolitical rivals exhibiting their wares together.
Communist-run Vietnam has for years been seeking to diversify its military supplies to reduce its decade-long reliance on Russia, and has discussed potential procurement deals with multiple countries trying to leverage its flexible diplomacy of good relations with great powers.
The ministry said in a statement that nearly 200 companies from 27 countries have already reserved booths at the defense expo to be held in the capital, Hanoi, on Dec. 19-22. These include firms from China and Iran, which had not attended Vietnam’s first international military fair in 2022.
The expo will bring together defense companies from Israel and Iran, who have launched missile attacks and airstrikes on each other in the past year. Iran will attend even though it is subject to sweeping Western sanctions.
Elbit and Rafael have attended the expo
At the past edition in 2022, Israeli defense firms Elbit Systems ESLT.TA and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems were among the exhibitors.
Vietnam’s defense ministry has not yet released a full list of participants, and it is not clear what arms will be displayed. Companies sometimes showcase only models of their bigger weapons.
Le Quang Tuyen, deputy head of the defense industry department, said on the sidelines of a press conference about the expo on Tuesday that China’s state-owned defense giant Norinco Group, which is subject to US sanctions, will attend.
Tuyen added that US companies Boeing BA.N and Lockheed Martin LMT.N will also have booths in the same large exhibition area in a military airport on the outskirts of Hanoi.
A senior US official said earlier this month that Lockheed Martin is in advanced talks with Vietnam to supply a handful of C-130 Hercules military transport planes, confirming an earlier Reuters report.
A company spokesperson did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the matter.
The variegated list of attendees is “bamboo diplomacy on show,” said Nguyen The Phuong, an expert on Vietnamese security at Australia’s University of New South Wales, using a popular definition for Vietnam’s flexible foreign policy.
“Vietnam will play with any partner it sees fit, particularly in defense,” he said.
The country also intends to use the fair to strengthen cooperation with foreign partners to boost its growing domestic industry with tech transfers and “seek opportunities to export,” the defense ministry said.
At the 2022 expo, Vietnam signed five contracts with foreign defense firms, Tuyen said, although there is no public record for them.
