`International Maritime Defence Show needs its own show floor` – Rogozin

The Sixth International Maritime Defence Show officially kicked off in St. Petersburg on July 4th . The guests and participants in the forum enjoyed a special programme. The centrepiece of the event was the performance of aerobatic teams, - the Russian Knights and Swifts, with both displaying supreme jet piloting skills. But the main newsmaker became Deputy Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who said that St. Petersburg would soon host another maritime defence show on a regular basis.

According to him, the IMDS has not just cast anchor in St. Petersburg, and laid the basis for numerous meetings and agreements, but is also becoming the tradition that should be kept up and developed every year. The Russian government has approved several programmes to develop both naval arms and civilian maritime facilities, including those to develop the Arctic Region. "So we would like St. Petersburg to play host to the maritime defence show once every two years, and also to a civilian maritime facility show, also on a biennial basis”.

According to Rogozin, the maritime defence show will also undergo change. The forum has long since proved its worth as one of the world’s three leading exhibitions of its kind.

"We’ve discussed it with St. Petersburg Governor, Georgy Poltavchenko, that the maritime defence show will be held in the city on a regular basis, that St. Petersburg has been chosen as the show capital not only on the national scale, but on a larger scale, judging by the number of attending foreign delegations; hence the need for the maritime show’s own area. We are certain that all this is possible to translate into life, given goodwill and funding, on the basis of a joint government sector/private sector partnership. We have private investors and are negotiating the issue with them”.