Russia accounted for 62 per cent of India's arms imports in 2013–17. Stockholm: India maintained its top spot as the largest weapons importer in the world over the last five years, according to fresh data on arms transfers published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Compared to previous years, India's overall imports climbed 24 per cent in the five-year period between 2013 and 2017. The country accounted for 12 per cent of the overall global imports.
Russia accounted for 62 per cent of India's arms imports in 2013-17. However, arms imports from the USA rose by 557 per cent between 2008-12 and 2013-17, making it India's second largest arms supplier.
Despite its continuing tensions with India and ongoing internal conflicts, Pakistan's arms imports decreased by 36 per cent between 2008-12 and 2013-17. Pakistan accounted for 2.8 per cent of global arms imports in 2013-17. Pakistan was the main recipient of Chinese weapons between 2013-17. The data also showed that Pakistan's arms imports from the United States dropped by 76 per cent in 2013-17 compared with 2008-12.
"The tensions between India, on the one side, and Pakistan and China, on the other, are fuelling India's growing demand for major weapons, which it remains unable to produce itself," said Siemon Wezeman, senior researcher with the SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure Programme.
"China, by contrast, is becoming increasingly capable of producing its own weapons and continues to strengthen its relations with Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar through arms supplies," he said.
China's arms imports fell by 19 per cent between 2008-12 and 2013-17. Despite this decrease, it was the world's fifth largest arms importer in 2013-17.
The top five importers in the world were India, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and China.
The volume of international transfers continued to show an upward trend with a 10 per cent increase.
The top five arms exporters in the world - United States (34 percent), Russia (23 percent), France (6 percent), Germany (5 percent), and China (6 percent) - together accounted for 74 per cent of all arms exports in 2013-17, the report added.
