India is amongst the world’s largest arms importers, says SIPRI

What is the News?

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has released a report titled “Trends in International Arms Transfers 2021 Report”.

What are the key findings of the report?

The volume of international transfers of major arms in 2017–21 was 4.6% lower than in 2012–16, but was 3.9% higher than in 2007–11.

The five largest arms exporters in 2017–21 were: the United States, Russia, France, China and Germany. 

The five largest arms importers were: India, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Australia and China.

Findings of the report regarding India

India accounted for 11% of global arms imports in 2017-21.

India’s total volume of imports fell by 21% from 2012-16, which could be a reflection of the push to manufacture arms and weapons systems indigenously.

Russia was India’s largest supplier of arms in both 2012-16 and 2017-21. However, the volume of India’s imports from Russia fell by 47% between these two periods. Russia’s share of total Indian arms imports fell from 69% to 46%. 

India’s imports from France also increased substantially, making France the second-largest supplier of arms to India in this period. France comprised 27% of its total imports during 2017-21. 

The US was the third-largest supplier with 12% of the Indian arms imports.

Source: This post is based on the article “India is amongst the world’s largest arms importers, says SIPRI” published in New Indian Express on 17th Mar 2022.