Arms trade between Europe and Asia, report

Nov.2014 The arms trade is a push market. Military companies work hard to get new costumers convinced of the need of the newest, most expensive technology, writes Martin Broek in East meets West on weapons and conflicts, a report for the Europe Asia People’s Forum.

South East Asia is a very profitable region for European arms companies. An example is the growing Dutch arms trade to Vietnam. This is closely connected to the regional rivalry between China and Vietnam.
While Dutch shipyard Damen is delivering naval vessels to Vietnam, equiped with Thales Nederland military technology, Thales is also cooperation with Chinese naval industry building major surface vessels for export. Dutch defence-industry thus profits of both conflicting parties. read the report

East meets West on weapons and conflicts