India remains world’s largest arms importer, share of Russian imports fell to 45 per cent: SIPRI data

The report said India’s tensions with Pakistan and China largely drive its demand for arms imports.

“With an 11 percent share of total global arms imports, India was the world’s biggest importer of major arms in 2018–22, a position it has held for the period 1993–2022,” it said.

However, it added that the 11 per cent drop in arms imports can be attributed to several factors including India’s slow and complex arms procurement process, and efforts to diversify its arms suppliers, among others.

Aside from Russia and France, India also imported arms during this five-year period from Israel, South Korea, and South Africa which are among the top arms exporters globally.

The report said Russia’s position as India’s main arms supplier is under pressure owing to strong competition from other supplier states, increased Indian arms production, and, since 2022, constraints on Russia’s arms exports related to its invasion of Ukraine.

It also said just under two-thirds of Russian arms exports went to India, China, and Egypt in 2018-22 — at 31 per cent, 23 per cent, and 9.3 per cent, respectively. It said while Russian arms exports went down by 37 per cent between the two periods, exports to China and Egypt increased by 39 per cent and 44 per cent, respectively, within the same time frame.

It, however, said that Russia made no deliveries to Egypt in 2021-22 and the volume of deliveries to China in 2020-22 was lower than in 2018-19. “It is likely that order volumes from these two states will reduce in the coming years,” it stated.

India’s arms import from France, SIPRI said, included 62 combat aircraft and four submarines and increased by 489 per cent between 2013-17 and 2018-22.

“France therefore displaced the USA to become the second largest supplier to India in 2018-22,” the report said.

As per the data, India was the third-largest arms supplier to Myanmar during this period after Russia and China and comprised 14 per cent of its imports. It also stated that 77 per cent of Pakistan’s arms supply in 2018-22 came from China.

The report said imports of major arms by European states increased by 47 per cent between 2013-17 and 2018-22 in the backdrop of the war in Ukraine even as the global volume of international arms transfers fell by 5.1 per cent.