With Russia As Main Supplier India Is The World’s Largest Weapons Importer
With Russia As Main Supplier India Is The World’s Largest Weapons Importer: A new study recently revealed that weapons imports to the Middle East and Asia have escalated over the past 5 years driven by war and tensions in those regions. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) calculated arms imports to the conflict-ridden Middle East doubled from 2013 to 2017 while ME accounted for 32 % of all arms imports worldwide.
US and European states remain the main arms exporters to the Middle East and supplied over 98% of weapons imported by Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is the world’s second largest importer of arms after India, SIPRI said. The US accounts for 61% of arms imports to Saudi Arabia and UK for 23%. UK recently signed a preliminary multi-billion-pound order from Saudi Arabia for 48 Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets and military equipment.
India is the world’s largest weapons importer with Russia as its main supplier accounting for 62% of its imports. SIPRI study while analyzing the causes of growth in weapon’s imports stated that the tensions between India and Pakistan and India’s involvement in Afghanistan have fueled India’s growing demand for major weapons, which it remains unable to produce itself. Pakistan accounted for 2.8 of global arms imports from 2013–17.
China is capable of producing its own weapons and continues to strengthen its relations with Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar through arms supplies. Beijing is the main arms supplier for Myanmar, accounting for 68% of imports, for 71% of weapons imports to Bangladesh and for 70% of imports to Pakistan.
Increase of weapons has caused havoc in the world. Myanmar’s violence & Syrian oppressions has caused some 700,000 of the people to flee over the borders since August taking with them horrifying testimonies. Despite these killings have triggered international condemnations, including EU and US sanctions, against Myanmar there is a need to implement and adhere to the conventions of Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) that aims to regulate the international trade of conventional weapons for the purpose of promoting co-operation, transparency, and responsible action by and among states reducing their suffering while contributing to international and regional peace.
SIPRI, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, is an independent institute, monitors arms deliveries by volume over periods of 5 years in order to sort out temporary instabilities.