India continues to be world’s largest arms importer, says SIPRI report
The US and four other countries account for over three-quarters of global arms exports.
Despite a decline in the last five years, India continues to be the world’s top arms importer. However, according to an analysis by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), European countries have been aggressively importing arms in recent years.
Here are some of the highlights of the report:
India and Saudi Arabia are among the top arms importers.
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The United States and four other countries account for over three-quarters of all arms exports.
Imports of major arms by European nations rose by 47 per cent between 2013-17 and 2018-22, while the global volume of arms transfers fell 5.1 per cent in the same period.
Twenty-nine countries supplied arms to Ukraine in 2022. The US has emerged as a major arms supplier to Ukraine, accounting for 35 per cent of total arms imports.
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SIPRI’s analysis attributed India’s demand for arms imports to its ongoing tensions with Pakistan and China. “India’s tensions with Pakistan and China primarily drive its demand for arms imports. With an 11 per cent share of total global arms imports, India was the world’s biggest importer of major arms in 2018-22, a position it held from 1993-2022”, the report has observed.
Russia was India’s largest arms supplier, but its market share dropped around 19 percentage points from 2013-17 to 2018-22.
Declining imports in recent years
The report says India remained the world’s top arms importer between 2018-22, although its arms imports declined by 11% compared to 2013-17. The decline in Indian arms imports was due to the sluggish pace of the procurement process, efforts to diversify arms suppliers, and a shift towards domestically produced arms.
India is the largest arms export market for Russia, France, and Israel.
Dip in global arms trade even as Europe has gone for aggressive acquisition
The global volume of international arms transfers fell by 5.1 per cent. In contrast, Ukraine did become a major importer of arms in 2022. Imports of significant arms by European countries rose by 47 per cent between 2013–17 and 2018–22. The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war may have played a big role.
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Since its independence in 1991, Ukraine imported very little till 2021. However, this changed after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, as the United States and many European states began to send large quantities of military aid to Ukraine.
Of the 29 countries that supplied arms to Ukraine in 2022, the US remained the leading supplier, accounting for 35 per cent of the total Ukrainian arms imports.
The report notes that ongoing geopolitical tensions have driven demand for arms imports. Though a big player in global trade, India has begun to produce defence equipment indigenously, and the process has accelerated in the last few years.
Also Read | India’s arms imports drop by 33%, Pak among largest buyers of Chinese weapons: SIPRI report
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