Pakistan ranks amongst top 10 countries to import arms, SIPRI report says

As International transfers of major arms saw a decline due to major drop in Russian and Chinese exports, substantial increases by the USA, France and Germany, three of the five top arms exporters, did little to balance it out, said Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) report Monday.

Exports by China, the world’s fifth-largest arms exporter in 2016–20, decreased by 7.8 pc between 2011–15 and 2016–20. Chinese arms exports accounted for 5.2 pc of total arms exports in 2016–20. Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Algeria were the largest recipients of Chinese arms.

Asia and Oceania were the largest importing regions for major arms, receiving 42% of global arms transfers in 2016–20. India, Australia, China, South Korea, and Pakistan were the biggest importers in the region.

The global top five arms importers in the time period were recorded to be Saudi Arabia, India, Egypt, Australia, and China. Pakistan clinched the tenth spot.

Separately, Arms imports in India decreased by 33 per cent between 2011–15 and 2016–20. While Russia took the greater hit on this drop, the Indian imports of US arms also fell by 46pc.

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According to the report published earlier today, the drop in Indian arms imports seems to have been mainly due to its complex procurement processes, combined with an attempt to reduce its dependence on Russian arms.

India is planning large-scale arms imports in the coming years from several suppliers, said Stockholm-based arms delivery watchdog.

Furthermore, arms exports by the United Kingdom dropped by 27 pc between 2011–15 and 2016–20. The UK accounted for 3.3 pc of total arms exports in 2016–20.

On the other hand, in the same period, arms exports by Israel represented 3 pc of the global total in 2016–20 and were 59 per cent higher than in 2011–15