A Swedish-based think tank found that international arms transfers increased through 2016 due largely to demand in the Middle East and Asia with the last five year period having the highest period volume since the end of the Cold War.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a think tank a research institute focused on conflict, the arms trade, and arms control issues, analyzed the volume of transfers of major weapons since 2007 in a report released Monday. It found that major weapons transfers increased by 8.4 percent between the 2007-11 and 2012-16 five-year periods. It noted that transfers of weapons in the 2012-16 period was the highest rate for any five-year period since the end of the Cold War.
SIPRI maintains the Arms Transfers Database, containing information on all international transfers of major weapons to states, international organizations, and armed non-state groups from 1950 through 2016. Transfer data includes sales, gifts, and production licenses. Their data covers the volume of deliveries of arms but not the financial values of the deals. SIPRI presents data in 5-year periods because the volume of deliveries can fluctuate greatly from year to year, the institute said.
Overall, arm flows increased to Asia, Oceania, and the Middle East in the previous 10 years while they decreased to Europe, the Americas, and Africa. The five biggest arms exporters are the United States, Russia, China, France, and Germany which combined account for 74 percent of the total volume of arms exports.
The Middle East in particular saw arms imports increases by 86 percent between the 2007-11 and 2012-16 periods. Imports in the Middle East also accounted for 29 percent of global imports in the previous five years, SIPRI said.
Within the Middle East, Saudi Arabia is the world’s second largest arms importer from 2012-16, increasing its arms imports by 212 percent from 2007-11. Qatar also greatly increased its arms imports between the two periods by 245 percent. SIPRI said most other Middle Eastern countries also increased arms imports, although at lower rates than these two.
“Over the past five years, most states in the Middle East have turned primarily to the USA and Europe in their accelerated pursuit of advanced military capabilities. Despite low oil prices, countries in the region continued to order more weapons in 2016, perceiving them as crucial tools for dealing with conflicts and regional tensions,” Pieter Wezeman, senior researcher with the SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure Programme, said in a statement.
In Asia and Oceania imports increased by 7.7 percent between the two periods, accounting for 43 percent of global imports in 2012-16. India was the world’s largest importer of major arms in 2012-16, making it 13 percent of the world total. Between 2007-11 and 2012-16 India increased its arms imports by 43 percent. These amounts actually make India’s imports over the past five years significantly greater than those of China and Pakistan.
Otherwise, Southeast Asian countries combined increased arms imports by 6.2 percent from 2007-11 to 2012-16. SIPRI highlighted that Vietnam jumped from the 29th largest arms importer in the first period to the 10th largest in the second period. Overall, Vietnam’s arms imports increased by 202 percent over the two periods.
“With no regional arms control instruments in place, states in Asia continue to expand their arsenals. While China is increasingly able to substitute arms imports with indigenous products, India remains dependent on weapons technology from many willing suppliers, including Russia, the USA, European states, Israel and South Korea,” Siemon Wezeman, another senior researcher with the SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure Programme, added.
The report noted that the U.S. was the largest arms exporter in 2012-16, accounting for one third of all global arms exports. They also increased by 21 percent between 2007-11 and 2012-16. SIPRI said almost half of the U.S. exports went to the Middle East.
“The USA supplies major arms to at least 100 countries around the world—significantly more than any other supplier state,” Dr. Aude Fleurant, director of the SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure Programme, said. This included advanced strike aircraft with cruise missiles, other precision-guided munitions, and the latest generation of air and missile defense systems.
Of the other four largest arms exporters Russia made up 23 percent of international exports from 2012-16 with 70 percent of their arms going to four countries: India, Vietnam, China, and Algeria.
China raised its share of global arms exports from 3.8 to 6.2 percent between the two periods and “is now firmly a top-tier supplier, like France and Germany.” France accounted for 6 percent of global arms exports in the last five years but this may soon rise because of a set of major contracts signed in the past five years. Germany accounted for 5.6 percent of arms exports in the 2012-16 period and although its exports spiked in 2016, German exports generally decreased by 36 percent between 2007-11 and 2012-16.
SIPRI noted several other developments in the arms transfers data including that Algeria was the largest arms importer in Africa (46 percent of all imports in the region/continent); the largest sub-Saharan arms importers are all in conflict zones (Nigeria, Sudan, and Ethiopia); arms imports by American countries decreased by 18 percent between the five year periods; European imports decreased by 36 percent between the two periods; and Azerbaijan had import rates 20 times higher than those of Armenia in 2012-16.
The institute noted American arms imports, while decreasing in the past five year period, varied greatly by state. Columbia decreased imports by 19 percent while Mexico increased imports by 184 percent. Additionally, European imports are likely to rise in the coming years compared to the last period because contracts signed from 2012-16 for advanced combat aircraft are due for additional deliveries.