India was the world’s biggest major arms importer in the last 5 years, shows report

With an 11% share, India continued to remain the world’s biggest importer of major arms between 2018 and 2022, data released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, or SIPRI, on Monday showed.

India is followed on the list by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Australia and China. These countries together imported 36% of the world’s arms during the five-year period.

India retained its pole position even though its arms imports dropped by 11% between 2013-17 and 2018-22, the SIPRI report showed. New Delhi has been the leading importer of arms and ammunition since 1993.

According to SIPRI, India’s demand for arms is largely driven by its cross-border tensions with Pakistan and China.

However, it said the decline in arms imports over the last decade could 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.

Data released on Monday showed that Russia remained India’s largest arms supplier between the two five-year periods of 2013-17 and 2018-22, even though the share of arms imports from Moscow fell from 64% to 45%.

France emerged as the second-largest arms supplier to India between 2018-22 at 29%, followed by the US at 11%.

“Russia’s position as India’s main arms supplier is under pressure due to strong competition from other supplier states, increased Indian arms production and, since 2022, the above-mentioned constraints on Russia’s arms exports related to its invasion of Ukraine,” the SIPRI said.

Besides Russia and France, India also imported arms from Israel, South Korea, and South Africa during this five-year period.