India has emerged as the world’s top importer of military weapons and equipment for the year 2017-2021.
India’s import accounts for 11 percent of the global weapons import, as per a report titled “Trends in international arms transfers, 2021” released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
“Between 2012–16 and 2017–21 Indian arms imports decreased by 21 per cent. Despite this, India was the world’s largest importer of major arms in 2017–21 and accounted for 11 per cent of total global arms imports in the period,” the report read.
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The report further said that Oceania and Asia remain the top arms importer in the world, with six states from these two regions among the top 10 importers. These are India, Australia, China, South Korea, Pakistan and Japan.
Overall, the top five importers for the period 2017-2021 are India, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Australia and China.
The report further said that India is planning large-scale arms imports in the next few years.
Among the exporters, the US, Russia and France occupy the top three positions with a share of 39%, 19% and 11% respectively in global exports in the said period.
Russia remains India’s top arms and equipment supplier. India imported 46 percent of it from Russia in the period 2017-2021. This is a 47 percent drop in import between 2012-16 and 2017-21.
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“The overall drop in Russian arms exports between 2012–16 and 2017–21 was almost entirely due to decreases in arms exports to India (–47 per cent) and Viet Nam (–71 per cent),” the report read.
India’s arms import from France made up 27 percent of its overall imports.
India’s arms imports from the US made up 12 percent of its overall arms imports.
“Because of perceived growing threats from China and Pakistan and because of significant delays in the production of its own major arms, India has large-scale plans for arms imports,” the report read.
