*STOCKHOLM: *Worldwide major arms exports have increased on growing demandfrom countries in conflict, researchers in Sweden said Monday, with topexporter the United States widening its lead over Russia.
Over the five years from 2015 to 2019, international arms exports grew by5.5 per cent from the 2010-2014 period, according to a report by theStockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
“Overall, arms transfers have increased… Amongst the arms importingcountries, the demand is high and seems to even have increased a bit,”Pieter Wezeman, senior researcher at SIPRI, told AFP.
Shipments from the US grew by 23 per cent, raising its share of totalglobal arms exports to 36 per cent.
Between 2015 and 2019, the US delivered major arms to 96 countries.
Half of the US arms exports went to the Middle East and half of that toSaudi Arabia, the world’s number one importer of major arms.
The kingdom’s arms imports jumped by 130 per cent from the 2010-2014period, and it was on the receiving end of 12 per cent of global major armstransfers in 2015 to 2019.
The fact that so much heavy weaponry is exported to the Middle East isparticularly “of concern”, Wezeman said, as the region is experiencing“conflicts and tensions and potential further conflict escalation”.
The researchers also noted that despite “wide-ranging concerns” in the UKand the US about Saudi Arabia’s military intervention in Yemen, bothcountries continued to export arms to Saudi Arabia.
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Meanwhile, arms transfers from the second largest exporter, Russia,decreased by 18 per cent, largely due to a drop in sales to India.
“It’s not necessarily very dramatic in the case of Russia. But still it’svery clear and it also creates a bigger gap between the biggest one, theUS, and Russia, the second,” Wezeman said.
Arms imports to India, which used to be the world’s largest importer,decreased by 32 per cent and imports by archrival Pakistan fell 39 per cent.
SIPRI researchers said both nuclear powers “have long-standing aims toproduce their own major arms”, but “remain largely dependent on imports.”
Exports of French arms saw one of the most dramatic increases — up 72 percent from the five previous years — putting France ahead of Germany as thethird largest exporter in the world, with 7.9 per cent of global exports.
Over half of France’s arms exports were to Egypt, Qatar and India, withdeliveries of the Rafale combat aircraft to these countries accounting fornearly a quarter of total French exports.
The increase in arms exports follows a trend since the early 2000s, whenarms transfers bottomed out after continually falling for a decade afterthe end of the Cold War. -APP / AFP
