New Delhi: India remains the world’s top arms importer, accounting for 9.8% of the global arms sales, states the latest report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), an European think tank which tracks arms sales globally.
Quoting the SIPRI report, Deccan Herald wrote, Russia continues to be India’s main weapons supplier — accounting for 36% of its arms imports — though its overall share has been decreasing as India increasingly depends on western countries and indigenous suppliers for military hardware and software now. Followed by Russia, France (33%) is India’s second largest arms supplier and the US (13%) is the third largest supplier of weapons for India.
India’s arms imports stood at 11% of the global arms sales between 2018-22. Therefore, there is a slight decline in the 2019-2023 period — 9.8% of global sales, the report suggested.
Among the top 10 arms importers, India is followed by Saudi Arabia (8.4%), Qatar (7.6%), Ukraine (4.9%), Pakistan (4.3%), Japan (4.1%), Egypt (4%), Australia (3.7%), South Korea (3.1%) and China (2.9%), Times of India quoted from the report. The top five countries have received 35% of all arms imports in the 2019-2023 period.
Also read: Challenges for the Army: Politicisation, Prioritising Counter-Insurgency and a Modernising Adversary
Further, the report pointed out that Pakistan witnessed 43% rise in its arms imports between 2019-23 and 82% of Pakistan’s arms imports are sourced from China.
Notably, despite the Narendra Modi government’s thrust on building a strong defence-industrial base, India does not figure among the top 25 arms exporting countries. The top 10 arms exporting countries are USA (42% of global arms exports), followed by France (11%), Russia (11%), China (5.8%), German (5.6%), Italy (4.3%), UK (3.7%), Spain (2.7%), Israel (2.4%) and South Korea (2%), the report noted.
While India occupies a strategically-vulnerable position being the world’s largest arms importer, it remains the biggest arms customer for France, Russia and Israel, Times of India mentioned from the think tank report.
