Reaffirming its prestigious position as a key player in shaping the future of global security and defense, World Defence Show (WDS) is making a significant strategic appearance at Eurosatory 2026 in Paris. This move reflects its deep engagement with leading global industry figures to build cross-border partnerships that pave the way for the fourth edition of the exhibition in 2028.
This international presence comes as a culmination of the exceptional success and record-breaking numbers achieved by the 2026 edition in Riyadh, which attracted major international companies and official delegations to an area of nearly 800,000 square meters. In this special interview, Professor Mansour Al-Babtain, Vice President of Business Partnerships and Communications at the World Defence Show, reviewed the dimensions of this growing international momentum, and revealed how the exhibition has transformed from a leading exhibition platform into a pivotal partner that translates the goals of Saudi Vision 2030 in localizing military industries by more than 50%, through creating an integrated environment that supports supply chains, transfers technology, and creates a sustainable defense future.
Events such as Eurosatory provide an important platform for maintaining dialogue with international industry stakeholders and continuing to strengthen long-term relationships across the global defense sector.
For WDS, participation is not simply about visibility. It is about engagement, understanding how industry priorities are evolving internationally and ensuring those conversations continue beyond the exhibition itself.
It also reflects the increasingly international nature of WDS. The platform today brings together governments, manufacturers, investors, innovators and institutions from across global markets, so maintaining that international presence is essential as we continue building momentum toward WDS 2028.
There is a strong focus around industrial resilience, localization, supply-chain capability and long-term strategic partnerships.
We are also seeing growing discussion around integrated defense systems, emerging technologies, unmanned capabilities and how countries are building more connected and collaborative defense ecosystems.
What is particularly noticeable is that conversations are becoming increasingly long-term in nature. The industry is no longer looking only at procurement cycles, but at sustainability of capability, industrial development and strategic cooperation over time.
Those themes align closely with the direction WDS continues to develop toward as a platform.
WDS 2026 demonstrated both the scale and the maturity the platform has now reached internationally.
The event took place across an 800,000 sqm venue and welcomed 1,486 exhibitors from 89 countries, alongside 513 official delegations from 121 countries and more than 137,000 trade visitors from 149 countries. Participation also included all of the world's top 10 defense companies and 61 of the top 100 globally.
Beyond the numbers themselves, the edition reinforced growing international confidence in WDS as a serious platform for defense engagement, commercial dialogue and long-term partnership development.
The level of repeat participation and the quality of institutional engagement were particularly significant indicators for us.
WDS is directly aligned with Saudi Arabia’s broader transformation objectives under Vision 2030, particularly around industrial development, localization, economic diversification and capability building.
As the Kingdom continues advancing its long-term defense sector ambitions, WDS acts as an enabling platform where many of those conversations can happen at scale internationally.
The platform creates opportunities across localization, technology transfer, supply-chain integration, SME participation and talent development, while also supporting greater international collaboration across the sector.
That role will continue becoming more important as the Saudi defense ecosystem evolves further in the coming years.
Localization is not achieved through policy alone. It requires ecosystems, partnerships and sustained industry engagement.
WDS supports that process by creating direct connections between international manufacturers, local companies, SMEs, government stakeholders and supply-chain partners.
Initiatives such as the Saudi Supply Chain Zone were developed specifically to strengthen those interactions and help create more meaningful pathways for collaboration and capability development inside the Kingdom.
The objective is to support long-term ecosystem growth rather than short-term transactional engagement.
The momentum toward 2028 has been very strong.
We are already seeing significant rebooking activity from returning exhibitors alongside growing interest from new market entrants looking to participate in the next edition.
That level of early demand reflects confidence not only in the scale of WDS, but in the commercial and strategic value participants are gaining from the platform internationally.
We have also recently published the WDS 2026 In-Depth Report, which captures many of the key insights, outcomes and trends that emerged from the exhibition. The report reflects our commitment to ensuring that the value generated through WDS extends beyond the event itself and continues contributing to industry dialogue between editions.
Our focus now is on building on the success of 2026 while continuing to evolve the platform in line with the priorities of the global defense sector.
WDS reflects Saudi Arabia’s growing role as a global convening platform for strategic dialogue, international engagement and industry collaboration.
The scale and diversity of participation we continue to see demonstrates growing international trust in the platform and in the Kingdom’s ability to host large-scale global industry engagement.
Importantly, WDS provides a professional and neutral environment where governments, companies and institutions from across different regions can come together around shared industry priorities and future opportunities.
That international convening role will continue becoming increasingly important moving forward.
The ambition is for WDS to continue evolving into one of the world’s leading defense platforms - not only in terms of scale, but in terms of strategic relevance and industry impact.
The role of exhibitions globally is changing. Today, platforms must facilitate dialogue, partnerships, capability development and long-term engagement across the industry ecosystem.
That is the direction WDS continues to move toward.
The objective is to create a platform that remains internationally relevant, commercially valuable and strategically important for governments, industry and institutions over the long term.