Missing in action: A rift emerges as the UAE skips Riyhad’s World Defense Show
The World Defense Show in Riyadh is doing exactly what it was designed to do: project confidence, capability and ambition. Fighter jets roar overhead and precision hardware gleams under the lights. The choreography is immaculate. The absences, however, are louder than the flybys: the UAE is mostly missing in action.
On the exhibitor list, about 30 Emirati companies are still technically present. On the exhibition floor, they are largely absent. The most telling detail is near the centre of the hall, where one of the show’s largest plots – originally allocated to Abu Dhabi defence heavyweight Edge – has been quietly repurposed as a coffee shop. In a sector where square metres signal status and proximity equals power, it is an exquisitely Gulf-style snub: courteous, bloodless and unmistakable.
It was rumoured a few days ago that UAE firms were planning to pull out, linking the decision to lingering strains between Abu Dhabi and Riyadh. And while the country hasn’t commented, it doesn’t actually need to. Defence exhibitions are not neutral marketplaces – they are extensions of statecraft. Turning up is alignment. Staying away is a message.
That message reflects a relationship that has changed from one of co-ordination to competition. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are no longer neatly aligned on the region’s future. The most visible rupture remains Yemen, where once-shared military objectives have drifted apart.
Business is feeling the chill. Some UAE-based companies report increasing difficulty securing Saudi visas – a seemingly mundane hurdle that carries major economic consequences. Trade between the two countries is worth close to $30bn (€25bn) a year and that flow depends on a shared understanding that politics will not interfere with commerce. An assumption being stress tested in public at this year’s World Defense Show.
Given that it is the most politicised of industries and the easiest place to send signals without issuing statements, defence is often where agreement is first put to the test. Empty stands, missing logos and “administrative issues” have become the tools of passive-aggressive international relations. No diplomats are recalled. The message is delivered through floor plans.
The bigger question hovering over the exhibition halls is whether the Gulf can afford to let these tensions drag on. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are competing to be the region’s indispensable hub for capital, industry and influence. Allow politics to seep too far into trade and both countries risk undermining the very model that they are selling to the world.
