SIPRI: India remains biggest arms importer
26-08-2023
12:04 PM
1 min read
What’s in today’s article?
- Why in News?
- What is Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)?
- What are the Key Findings of the SIPRI’s latest data?
- What are the Challenges ahead for India and the World?
Why in News?
- According to the SIPRI, India remained the world’s largest arms importer for the five-year period between 2018-22 even though its arms imports dropped by 11% between 2013–17 and 2018–22.
What is Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)?
- SIPRI is an independent international institute dedicated to research into conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament.
- Established in 1966 and based in Stockholm (Sweden), SIPRI provides data, analysis and recommendations, to policymakers, researchers, media and the interested public.
- It is regularly ranked among the most respected think tanks worldwide.
What are the Key Findings of the SIPRI’s latest data?
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India as the world’s top importer of arms:
- India continues to be the world’s largest arms importer (a position it has held for the period 1993–2022) followed by Saudi Arabia. India accounted for 11% of the total global imports in 2018-2022.
- Russia was the largest supplier of arms to India in both 2013–17 and 2018–22, but its share of total Indian arms imports fell from 64% to 45% while France (29%) and the US (11%) emerged as the 2nd and 3rd largest supplier between 2018-22.
- However, Russia’s position is under pressure due to strong competition, increased Indian arms production and constraints on Russia’s arms exports due to invasion of Ukraine.
- Among the top 10 arms exporters for the period 2018-22, India was the biggest arms export market to three countries - Russia, France and Israel and the second largest export market to South Korea.
- India was also the third largest market for South Africa which was ranked 21 in the list of arms exporters.
Image Caption: SIPRI Data on India’s Arms Imports
- India’s arms imports from France:
- Increased by 489% between 2013–17 and 2018–22, India’s arms imports from France included 62 combat aircraft and four submarines.
- France therefore displaced the USA to become the second largest supplier to India in 2018–22.
- India’s imports dropped by 11% between 2013–17 and 2018–22: The decrease can be attributed to several factors including -
- India’s slow and complex arms procurement process,
- Efforts to diversify its arms suppliers, and
- Attempts to replace imports with major arms that are designed and produced domestically.
- What drives India’s Demand for Arms? India’s tensions with Pakistan and China largely drive its demand for arms imports.
- India as an arms exporter: India was the third largest arms supplier to Myanmar after Russia and China accounting for 14% of its imports.
- Overall: The U.S. share of global arms exports increased from 33% to 40% while Russia’s fell from 22% to 16%.
What are the Challenges ahead for India and the World?
- India continues to languish in the strategically-vulnerable as well as embarrassing position of being the world’s largest arms importer, despite the government’s thrust on “Make in India” in defence production.
- Russian exports to India decreased by 37% between the two periods. In contrast, exports to China (+39%) and Pakistan (14%) increased between 2013–17 and 2018–22.
- China supplied 77% of Pakistan’s arms imports in 2018–22.
- While the global level of international arms transfers decreased by 5.1%, imports of major arms by European states increased by 47% between 2013–17 and 2018–22 in the backdrop of the war in Ukraine.
- Strategic competition also continues elsewhere - arms imports to East Asia have increased and those to the Middle East remain at a high level.
- All the above are a clear indication of the ‘security dilemma’ fueling arm race in different regions of the world and threatening world peace.
Q1) Why does India import the most weapons?
Because to anticipated threats from China and Pakistan, as well as severe delays in domestic manufacture, India has big ambitions for importing weapons.
Q2) Why does India continue to be the greatest weapon importer in the world?
This underlines India’s persisting failure to build a strong defence-industrial base with much larger private sector participation as well as the poor performance by the DRDO, defence PSUs and ordnance factories over the years.
Source: India remains biggest arms importer between 2018-22 despite drop in overall imports | ToI