Gen. Satien Pirmthong-in, permanent secretary of Thai Defence Ministry, presided over the opening ceremony of the 8th Defense & Security 2012 Show at Impact Exhibition Center Bangkok on Monday with participation of defence ministers and ambassadors from various countries.

According to local media Mthai News, Gen. Tea Banh, the deputy prime minister and minister for national defence for Cambodia as well as other defence ministers from Malaysia, the Philippines and South Africa along with military top brasses and ambassadors to Thailand attended the event.

The show is based on four unique concepts -- exhibition, technical and special seminars and presentations and live demonstrations and networking.

Commandos from the Royal Thai Air Force were deployed throughout the venue and irrelevant people were not allowed to enter the convention.

There were 212 arms producing companies from 35 different countries across the world exhibited a wide variety of both large and small defense and security equipments including bullet-proof vests, medical tents to armored vehicles, humvees, flight simulators and drones.

Germany, the United States, Czech Republic, France, South Korea, Israel, Singapore, Belarus, Russia, Poland and Thailand also set up their national pavilions at the event.

The event, which was supported by the Defence Ministry of Thailand, Royal Thai Army, Royal Thai Air Force and Royal Thai Navy, will continue until Thursday, March 8. The exhibition, which is normally held every two years, envisages over 8,272 defense and security related visitors from 31 countries.