New Delhi: India was the world’s largest arms importer between 2018 and 2022, accounting for 11 per cent of global imports, according to fresh data released by the Sweden-based Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
The data, part of SIPRI’s Trends in International Arms Transfers 2022 report released this week, adds that India was the biggest market for Russian arms exports from 2018 to 2022. India received 31 per cent of the total arms exported by Russia during this period.
However, Russian arms exports to India dipped by 37 per cent compared to the 2013-17 period. At the same time, arms transfers to China accounted for 23 per cent of Russian arms exports between 2018 and 2022 — a 37 per cent increase from the 2013-17 period.
As a consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Kyiv emerged as the third largest importer of arms in 2022, SIPRI found. Prior to the war, Ukraine was the 14th largest arms importer in the world between 2018 and 2022.
Data released by SIPRI also sheds light on the “all-weather friendship” between Pakistan and China. According to it, China accounted for 77 per cent of Pakistan’s arms imports in the 2018-2022 period, reflecting the extent to which Islamabad is dependent on Beijing for its military needs.
SIPRI identified India, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Australia and China as the top five arms importers in 2018–22, accounting for 36 per cent of global arms imports during this period. India’s share globally was 11 per cent followed by Saudi Arabia with 9.6 per cent and Qatar with 6.4 per cent.
India, the largest arms importer in the world since 2013, accounted for a whopping 11 per cent of global arms imports between 2018 and 2022, according to SIPRI.
