India has remained as the world’s biggest weapons importer and its arms imports rose by 4.7%  between 2014-2018 and 2019-2023, said Swedish think tank SIPRI in a report on Monday. The report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) also said that Russia continued as India’s main arms supplier. The report also added that around 55% of arms imports by European states in 2019-23 were supplied by the US, up from 35% in 2014-18.

“India was the world’s top arms importer. Its arms imports increased by 4.7 per cent between 201418 and 201923,” the think-tank said in a statement.

“Although Russia remained India’s main arms supplier (accounting for 36 per cent of its arms imports), this was the first five-year period since 196064 when deliveries from Russia (or the Soviet Union before 1991) made up less than half of India’s arms imports,” it said.

According to the report, Pakistan has also significantly increased its imports by 43%. Pakistan was the fifth largest arms importer in 2019-23 and China became even more dominant as its main supplier, providing 82% of its arms imports, it said.

China’s own arms imports shrank by 44%, as a result of substituting imported arms most of which came from Russia, with locally produced systems. “There is little doubt that the sustained high levels of arms imports by Japan and other US allies and partners in Asia and Oceania are largely driven by one key factor: concern over China’s ambitions,” said Siemon Wezeman, Senior Researcher with the SIPRI Arms Transfers Programme.

“The US, which shares their perception of a Chinese threat, is a growing supplier to the region,” the report said. According to the report, 30% of international arms transfers went to the Middle East in 2019-23. This resulted in 3 Middle Eastern states being among the top 10 importers in 2019-23, namely, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt.

Saudi Arabia was the world’s second-largest arms importer in 2019-23, receiving 8.4% of global arms imports in the period, the SIPRI said but Saudi Arabian arms imports fell by 28% in 2019-23.

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