The Vice-Minister of Defence and Aerospace Industry Shaymergenov Timur led the Kazakh delegation at the talks, while the Indian delegation was led by Joint Secretary (Planning and International Cooperation), Ministry of Defence, Shambhu Kumaran.

During the meeting both sides discussed prospects for cooperation between defence enterprises as well as further boosting interaction in the field of cyber security and peace making, the embassy release said.

Kazakhstan, a solid legacy in defence industry

Kazakh defence enterprises produce ships, unique combat vehicles, helicopters, optical instruments, communications and radar reconnaissance systems, salvo fire systems.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the independent Kazakhstan inherited 200,000-strong armed forces, a huge amount of weapons and military equipment and facilities. Therefore, the Kazakh army received also Soviet-made equipment. However, after the independence, economic ties collapsed and put domestic enterprises in a difficult situation: on the one hand, Kazakhstan no longer received parts from other republics; on the other hand, its own products were not in demand, as there was no market for them. As a result, the plants of the defence industry refused to produce new products and began to deal only with repairing and modernising the remaining Soviet equipment.

During the Soviet time, the military-industrial complex was a powerful system of enterprises producing military equipment, weapons and ammunition. In fact, one third of all material, financial, scientific, human and technical resources were spent for solving the country’s security problems. In this period, about 50 enterprises of the defence industry complex were deployed in Kazakhstan. They mainly specialised in the production of weapons for the naval forces, weapons for tanks, small arms, missile systems and air defence systems’ components.

The Almaty Machine Building Plant named after Kirov was in the forefront. It was the world’s largest torpedo manufacturing enterprise.

The Petropavlovsk Heavy Machinery Plant, which specialised in the production of medium-range ballistic missiles, was one of the flagships of the Soviet defence industrial complex. The factories of Uralsk, which produced communication and navigation equipment for ships and submarines, missile systems of coastal defence are also worth noting.

To unite Kazakhstan’s state owned defence industry companies, Kazakhstan Engineering (Казахстан инжиниринг) complex was established. The headquarters of this group is in Astana. Kazakhstan Engineering owns 27 subsidiaries, including 24 manufacturing enterprises, in different shares of stock. It has the responsibility of the development, manufacture, sale, repair and modernization of weapons, military and special equipment and ammunition, and participating in military-technical cooperation with foreign states.