The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has released a new report on arms imports. The report states that India is the second largest arms importer in the world. SIPRI said that India imported 8.3 percent of the world’s arms in the five years from 2021 to 2025. Ukraine is the largest arms importer. Ukraine, which is at war with Russia, imported 9.7 percent of the weapons in the last five years, the SIPRI report said. SIPRI released its report titled Trends in International Arms Transfer 2025. But the report said that India’s arms imports have declined compared to previous records. The SIPRI report said that India’s arms imports fell by 4 percent between 2016 and 2020, and then by 4 percent between 2021 and 2025.
However, SIPRI has recently said that India has increased its capability in designing and manufacturing weapons, which has led to a decrease in imports. It said that India is importing weapons according to a plan. India is trying to get about 140 fighter jets from France and a submarine from Germany. Russia, France and Israel are among the top countries supplying weapons to India.
The number of arms imports from Russia has decreased. Between 2011-15, arms imports were 70 percent. But then from 2016 to 2020, imports fell to 51 percent, and then to 40 percent from 2021 to 2025, SIPRI said in its report. During 2021-25, 29 percent of arms were imported from France and 15 percent from Israel. The report said that India imported arms in the wake of border tensions with China and Pakistan.
Pakistan is the fifth largest importer of arms worldwide, accounting for 4.2 percent of global arms imports. China supplies 80 percent of its arms to Turkey. The Netherlands remains Pakistan’s second largest supplier. However, the United States remains the world’s largest arms supplier, accounting for 42 percent of global arms imports. The United States supplies arms to a total of 99 countries.
