So, the Kazakhstan defense expo KADEX has finished, and the big "news" out of the show was that Kazakhstan's state military defense industry holding company Kazakhstan Engineering signed Memoranda of Understanding with three companies: Russia's Rosoboronexport, Turkey's Aselsan, and France's Thales. (Multi-vector diplomacy in action?) These memoranda are all vague and don't commit anyone to buying or making anything specific, so they should be taken with a grain of salt.
When I asked the representative of another foreign company today how the expo went for him, he said: "There is a joke: Two American businessmen are talking in a bar in South Korea. One asks the other, 'So how was your day?' The guy responds: 'Well, I had breakfast with General Kim, lunch with General Park and dinner with General Lee.' To which the first guy says, 'So, you didn't sell anything, either?'"
Still, most of the foreign companies I talked to said that the Kazakhstan market was so new to them that this trip was just to introduce themselves and try to learn what Kazakhstan might want. So this will bear watching. In the meantime, I will have a few reports coming out soon on EurasiaNet on Kazakhstan's defense industry, equipment-buying plans, and development of a navy. Keep an eye out for them.
Joshua Kucera, a senior correspondent, is Eurasianet's former Turkey/Caucasus editor and has written for the site since 2007.
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