Despite warnings by the United States to allies and others not to attend Rebuild Syria 2019, an industry, agriculture and infrastructure exposition held Sept. 17-21 at the Damascus Fair Grounds, some 390 businesses from 31 countries chose to participate. The occasion marked the fifth consecutive year for the expo, organized with an eye toward the future reconstruction of Syria.

Washington has in the past issued general warnings that countries hold the line on sanctions against Iran and avoid all business fairs in Syria, asserting that they are basically “Iranian events” due to Tehran’s sponsorship or prominent presence at them. Indeed, Iran's ambassador to Syria, Jawad Turk Abadi, participated in the ribbon-cutting ceremony this year, and 84 Iranian companies, more than one-fifth of the total, were in attendance. Russia also made its presence known with a stylish, 1,116-square-foot pavilion hosting 10 midsize private sector companies from seven regions. A few Chinese companies attended, and they had no pavilion.

Data that Al-Monitor obtained from the Russian delegation at the expo showed that Russian participants were from the business-to-business (B2B) sector, in other words, not publicly funded. This year, Russia's Ministry of Industry and Trade only provided participating companies non-financial support, according to a source in the Russian delegation, likely including help with organizational issues and providing necessary contacts.

Since Russian participants had to pay their own way, their attendance at the expo was suggestive of their level of desire to tap Syrian markets. In parallel, Russian industrialists have been examining possibilities for setting up local manufacturing with a view toward eventually also gaining access to markets in other Arab states, among them Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan, via the “Syrian industrial hub” of intra-Arab foreign trade.