India is world’s largest importer of arms

India continues to hold its position as the world’s largest importer of weapons and military equipment over the last five years, followed by Saudi Arabia, China, the United Arab Emirates and Australia.

A report on arms transfer in the international market has noted that China has raced passed Germany and France to occupy the third spot among leading arms exporter, after the US and Russia.

According to the latest global arms scenario released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the US and Russia supplied 58 per cent of all arms exports.

India continued to be the main client for arms exports from Russia, hogging 39 per cent of total exports, while both China and Vietnam got 11 per cent each. India was the second most important client for the UK in terms of arms exports, after Saudi Arabia, which cornered 46 per cent of total exports from the UK during 2011-15, as compared with India’s 11 per cent, followed by Indonesia at 8.7 per cent.

Despite having the seventh largest defence budget in the world, India continues to be the largest arms importer globally.

An analyst at ICICI Securities tracking the sector said though Russia and Israel have remained India’s largest suppliers of weaponry, several mega deals struck, in the past three years, by the previous UPA government with US companies — primarily using the Foreign Military Sales programme or government-to-government sales route — has made the US the top supplier.

The US’ climb follows a series of deals inked mostly in the aviation sector.

The largest being the deal for C17 transporters at $4.7 billion, followed by a contract for P-8I maritime reconnaissance aircraft, and additional orders for C130J special operations aircraft.

The analyst pointed out that Russians have remained steady suppliers despite dropping to the number two position and have been getting major payments for T-90 tanks and Su 30 MK1 fighters, as well as a host of other smaller contracts. Imports from France, on the other hand, have primarily been to upgrade the Mirage fighter fleet for over $2 billion, and continued payments for the Scorpene submarines.

With the volume of international transfers of major weapons in 2011-15 14 per cent higher than in 2006-10, the SIPRI report pointed out that China sold most of its weapons to India’s neighbours.

China’s main client for arms export was Pakistan, which took 35 per cent of total exports, followed by Bangladesh with 20 per cent, and Myanmar with 16 per cent.

China’s share of international arms exports was 3.6 per cent between 2006-10. This jumped up to 5.9 per cent between 2011-15, the report said.

The SIPRI report showed that India’s share in international arms imports jumped from 8.5 per cent during 2006-10, to 14 per cent in 2011-15.

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