Recently, Stockholm-based defence think-tank SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) has released a report on global arms transfers for a period between 2018-22.
Major Highlights:
Global:
- The five largest arms importers in the world during 2018-22 were India, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Australia and China.
- The five largest arms exporters were the United States, Russia, France, China and Germany.
- The United States’ share of global arms exports increased from 33 to 40%, while Russia’s fell from 22 to 16%.
- While arms transfers have declined globally, those to Europe have risen sharply due to the tensions between Russia and other European states.
India-specific:
- India remained the world’s top arms importer, but its imports declined by 11% between 2013-17 and 2018-22.
- The decline was linked to a complex arms procurement process, efforts to diversify arms suppliers and attempts to replace imports with indigenous designs.
- Russia accounted for 45% India’s arms imports followed by France (29%) and the US (11%). Russia was the largest supplier of arms to India in both 2013–17 and 2018–22, but its share of total Indian arms imports fell from 64% to 45%.
