SIPRI: India is the world’s largest arms importer

March 22, 2014

As per the report published by the Sweden-based Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), India become the world’s largest arms importer over 2004-13 and its import of weapon systems is three times more than Pakistan and China.
As per the report of Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)

Indian imports of major weapons rose by 111% in the last five years compared to 2004-08. Its share of total global arms imports increased from 7 to 14%.
World’s total arms sales had increased by 14 % from 2009 to 2013.
World’s top five Global arms importers: India (14%), China (5%), Pakistan (5%), the United Arab Emirates (4%) and Saudi Arabia (4%).
Major suppliers of arms to India in 2009-13: Russia (accounting for 75% of imports) and the US (7%).
World’s top five Global arms suppliers between 2009 and 2013: the United States (29 % of global exports), Russia (27%), Germany (7 %), China (6 %) and France (5%).
Imports by European nations decreased by 25 % between 2004-2008 and 2009-13.
Britain was the largest importer of major weapons in Europe (received 12 % of deliveries), followed by Azerbaijan (12 %) and Greece (11 %).
Arms exports to Africa between 2004-08 and 2009-13 jumped 53 per cent. The three largest importers in the region were Algeria, Morocco and Sudan.

Note: SIPRI is an independent international institute in Sweden i.e. dedicated to research into conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament. It provides data, analysis and recommendations, based on open source, to policymakers, researchers, media and the interested public.
The SIPRI Arms Transfers Database
The SIPRI Arms Transfers Database contains information on all international transfers of major weapons (including sales, gifts and production under licence) to states, international organizations and armed non-state groups since 1950. It is the only publicly available resource providing consistent data on arms transfers for this length of time.
The database can be used to track transfers of major weapons and to answer such questions as:

Who are the main suppliers and recipients of major weapons?
How have relations between different suppliers and recipients changed over time?
Where do countries in conﬂict get their weapons?
How do states implement their export control regulations?
Where are potentially destabilizing build-ups of weapons occurring today?
What major weapons have been exported or imported?

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The trend in international transfers of major weapons, 1950–2013 (Source: www.sipri.org)

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