This is how India stockpiles weapons. Sipri reports
Russia drops to third place in the ranking of the main arms exporting countries, while India remains in first place. Facts, numbers and comparisons from the latest report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri).
India remains on top of the podium as the largest importer of armaments while Russia has become the third largest exporter after the United States and France in the period from 2019 to 2023.
This is what emerges in the latest report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) published today.
According to new data on international arms transfers published today by Sipri, the top ten arms exporters are the USA, France, Russia, Italy, South Korea, China, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and Israel. Previously, Russia occupied second place in the ranking, but its export volumes halved following sanctions resulting from the conflict in Ukraine.
However, the global volume of international arms transfers decreased slightly, by 3.3%. The largest volumes of weapons flowed to Asia, Oceania and the Middle East, where nine of the ten largest importers are located.
Furthermore, European countries imported almost double the amount of weapons in 2019-2023 compared to 2014-2018, while Kiev emerged as Europe's largest arms importer following the Russian invasion in 2022.
All the details on the latest report from the Swedish think tank.
MILITARY EXPORTS DOWN FOR RUSSIA
“Russia was the third largest arms exporter for the first time, just after France. Russian arms exports fell by 53% between 2014-18 and 2019-23. The decline has been rapid over the past five years, and while Russia exported weapons to 31 countries in 2019, it sent weapons to only 12 countries in 2023. States in Asia and Oceania received 68% of total exports. of Russian weapons in the period 2019-23, with India representing 34% and China 21%”, explains Sipri.
Previously, Moscow occupied second place in the ranking, but its export volumes halved following sanctions resulting from the conflict in Ukraine.
“The low volume of outstanding deliveries of major weapons from Russia suggests that Russian arms exports are likely to remain well below the level reached in 2014-2018, at least for the short term,” the Stockholm think tank added.
SILVER MEDAL FOR MILITARY EXPORT IN PARIS
The decline in Russian exports has led France to overtake the country as the world's second-largest arms exporter behind the United States, for the first time since records began in 1950, Reuters notes.
Paris became the second largest arms exporter after Washington, increasing shipments by 47%. “The largest share of French arms exports (42%) goes to the states of Asia and Oceania, and another 34% to the countries of the Middle East. The main recipient of French arms exports is India, which accounted for almost 30% of supplies. The increase in French arms exports is largely due to deliveries of fighter jets to India, Qatar and Egypt,” reads the research institute's report.
THE USA IN FIRST PLACE ON THE PODIUM
The United States remains the largest arms exporter in the world.
“US arms exports grew 17 percent between 2014-2018 and 2019-23, and their share of total global arms exports increased from 34 to 42 percent. The United States delivered weapons to 107 states in 2019-23, more than in any previous five-year period and far more than any other exporting country. The United States and Western European states together accounted for 72% of all arms exports in 2019-23, compared to 62% in 2014-18,” SIPRI reports.
ITALY IN TENTH PLACE AS EXPORTER
Considering the 10 main arms exporters after the United States, France and Russia, the largest percentage increase in exports is recorded in Italy. Our country represents 4.3% of global arms exports in the period 2019-23. A total of 71% of its exports ended up in the Middle East. However, the figure for Italian arms imports in the same reference period is down by 37%, which ranks 24th in the ranking of the main world importers. The main suppliers of Italy, in this case, are the United States, Germany and France.
EUROPE DOUBLES WEAPONS IMPORTS SINCE 2019
Turning to data on military imports, “European states almost doubled their imports of major weapons (+94%) between 2014-18 and 2019-23,” we read in the research. In the last two years, however, in the context of the Ukrainian conflict, European states have shown greater interest in air defense systems, Sipri senior researcher Pieter Wezeman said in the report.
BOOM IN ARMS IMPORTS FOR INDIA ACCORDING TO SIPRI
India remains the largest importer in the world. Its arms imports increased by 4.7% between 2014-2018 and 2019-23, despite the new direction pushed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
New Delhi has long talked about diversifying suppliers to its military and even producing more equipment at home (make-in-India). Goals that have taken on new urgency since Russia's invasion. Although Moscow remained India's largest arms supplier (accounting for 36% of its arms imports), this is the first five-year period since 1960-64 in which deliveries from Russia (or the Soviet Union before 1991) accounted for less than half of India's total weapons imports.
BEIJING'S IMPORTS DROP
However, China's arms imports are decreasing, decreasing by 44% from 2019 to 2023 compared to the previous five years. The Asian country thus ranks tenth in the list of the world's largest buyers of foreign armaments. In the reference period, Beijing maintained a high share of purchases from Russia, which contributed to 77% of imports in the Asian country, followed by France with a share of 13%.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/india-importatore-armi-report-sipri/ on Mon, 11 Mar 2024 13:41:04 +0000.