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Top 10 largest arms importing countries (2020–2024): India’s position revealed

Largest Arm Importers Globally (2020-2024): Notably, the five largest arms importers accounted for 35% of global arms imports among the 162 nations classified by SIPRI as major arms importers between 2020 and 2024.

Top 10 Largest Arm Importers in the World from 2020-2024 (Source: Shutterstock)

The World’s Largest Arm Importers 2020-2024: Ukraine has emerged as the leading global arms importer, accounting for 8.8% of total arms imports during the period from 2020 to 2024, according to the latest report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). It also stated that nearly half of Ukraine’s imports came from the United States, which dominates the global arms export market.

European countries have notably increased their imports of major arms and defence weapons, experiencing a remarkable 155% rise over the past four years (2020-2024) compared to the previous four-year period (2015-2019), SIPRI reported.

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Prior to 2022, Ukraine imported very few major arms, but due to the ongoing conflict with Russia, which began in February 2022, it heavily imported arms in 2023 and 2024 from at least 35 countries supplying major arms to Ukraine as part of military aid.

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Significantly, the five largest arms importers accounted for 35% of global arms imports among the 162 nations classified by SIPRI as major arms importers between 2020 and 2024.

The world’s 10 largest importers of major arms and their main suppliers from 2020 to 2024

Here’s a global share of imports of major arms by the 10 largest importers, 2020–24, as reported by SIPRI. (Source: SIPRI)

Rank	Country	Share of global arms imports (2020-24)	Top 3 Supplier Countries
1	Ukraine	8.8%	USA, Germany, Poland
2	India	8.3%	Russia, France, Israel
3	Qatar	6.8%	USA, Italy, UK
4	Saudi Arabia	6.8%	USA, Spain, France
5	Pakistan	4.6%	China, Netherlands, Türkiye
6	Japan	3.9%	USA, UK, Germany
7	Australia	3.5%	USA, Spain, Norway
8	Egypt	3.3%	Germany, Italy, France
9	United States	3.1%	UK, France, Israel
10	Kuwait	2.9%	USA, Italy, France

Source: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)

Explaining the global position of India:

As of the period between 2020 and 2024, India ranked as the world’s second-largest arms importer, accounting for 8.3% of global imports, SIPRI reported.

However, this marked a 9.3% decline in its share compared to the previous five-year period from 2015 to 2019 and can be attributed to India’s growing capacity to design and manufacture its weapons, which has reduced its reliance on imports.

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In terms of sourcing, Russia constituted the largest portion of India’s arms imports at 36%, and the country is gradually diversifying its arms supply relationships, increasingly turning to Western suppliers, including France, Israel, and the United States.

Cherry Gupta

Cherry Gupta is an Assistant Manager – Content at The Indian Express. She leads the Top 10 section, curating list-based features on key national and international developments, and manages daily news content. She also produces SEO-driven articles and collaborates with the Lifestyle team to conduct interviews with notable artists and write workplace culture features. ... Read More