Minsk Welcomes 12th International Exhibition of Arms and Military Machinery MILEX-2025
On 21 May 2025, Minsk saw the inauguration of the 12th International Exhibition of Arms and Military Machinery MILEX-2025, the paramount military-technical event of the year for the Belarusian arms industry professionals.
State Secretary of the Security Council Aleksandr Volfovich, Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Karankevich, Minister of Defence Viktor Khrenin, Minister of the State Authority for Military Industry of the Republic of Belarus (SAMI) and Chairman of the MILEX-2025 Organizing Committee Dmitry Pantus spoke at the inauguration ceremony.
In his welcome speech, Dmitry Pantus stressed the following:
"MILEX-2025 falls on a symbolic year – the year of the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. The price we had to pay at that time constantly reminds us about the biggest treasure on Earth – which is peace.
Belarus’ military industry sector works to preserve peace, strengthen the national defence capabilities, develop the technological sovereignty and expand international cooperation. We demonstrate our openness and willingness to work with those partners who uphold equality of rights and mutually beneficial cooperation.”
The exhibition started its work with the traditional ceremony of red ribbon cutting by the country’s high-ranking officials: the state secretary of the Security Council, the deputy prime minister, Belarusian arms and defence industry leaders.
The country’s top-ranking officials, as well as members of foreign delegations, explored the expositions to do justice to the groundbreaking developments of the Belarusian and foreign military industry sectors. Besides Belarusian companies, the MILEX-2025 exhibitors are represented by manufacturers from Russia, China, Iran, Pakistan and India.
Quite a number of specimens of armaments, military and purpose-built equipment and vehicles made their debut at MILEX-2025.
The state-of-the-art unmanned aerial system (UAS) named Juliet is among them. The UAS is engineered to perform special target search and detection tasks, as well as pinpoint target designation missions. Its distinctive features include vertical takeoff and landing, up to 50 kg payload carrying capacity, flight time of up to 10 hours.
The SKY-TRUCK helicopter-type unmanned system is another novel product.
Its key capabilities:
- up to 500 kg load carrying capacity;
- 360 km flying distance with a 200 kg load;
- a unique AIR BOX shipping container offering all the benefits of container shipments.
The official part of the exhibition-forum on its first day was followed by the business meetings of SAMI Minister Dmitry Pantus.
His first meeting was with Aleksandr Potapov, the CEO of JSC Uralvagonzavod Research and Production Corporation.
The parties discussed cooperation between Belarusian defence industry organizations and the companies of Uralvagonzavod Corporation, including within the framework of performance of defence procurement contracts of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation.
MILEX-2025 also became another meeting place for SAMI Minister Dmitry Pantus and Vugar Mustafayev, the Minister of Defence Industry of the Republic of Azerbaijan. During their talks, the parties discussed the promising areas of bilateral mutually beneficial cooperation, as well as the issues of organization of production joint ventures.
Further in Mr Pantus’ schedule was a meeting with Alexander Bobryshev, the Deputy General Director of Public Joint-Stock Company “United Aircraft Corporation”. This meeting is particularly important in the light of continuing growth of cooperation between Belarus and Russia in aviation industry.
The meeting participants elaborated on the issues of expansion of industrial cooperation for the manufacturing of components and assemblies for different types of aircraft by Belarusian companies, as well as new areas of bilateral cooperation.
The first day in the business programme of the SAMI minister ended with a meeting with Deputy Minister of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics for Strategic Planning of the Islamic Republic of Iran Brigadier General Reza Talaei-Nik.
The parties discussed the whole range of issues within the scope of current cooperation, confirmed their commitment to the agreements reached as a result of the visit of Minister of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics of the Islamic Republic of Iran Brigadier General Aziz Nasirzadeh to the Republic of Belarus in March 2025, and outlined pathways for further expansion of this cooperation.
