India emerges as world’s second-largest arms importer after war-torn Ukraine, SIPRI data reveals
India News | World: Uncover the SIPRI report's findings on how India's defence strategies and arms imports are shaped by its complex relationships with Pakistan and China.
India has emerged as the world's second-largest importer of major arms in the period from 2020 to 2024, with war-torn Ukraine bagging the first spot.
Latest data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) shows that India imported 8.3 per cent of all major arms exports in the period.
Meanwhile, Ukraine imported 8.8 per cent of all major arms exports in 2020-24 period, as its imports increased nearly 100 times over (+9627 per cent) compared to 2015–19.
India’s arms imports
India’s large arms imports, as per the SIPRI report, were largely driven by tensions with its neighbours Pakistan and China.
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Even though between 2020 and 2024 India emerged as the second-largest arms importer globally, it actually decreased its imports by 9.3 per cent from 2015 to 2019. This drop, as per the report, “At least partly the result of India’s increasing ability to design and produce its own weapons, making it less reliant on imports.”
For both Russia and France, India was the biggest export destination, even though imports from Moscow have reduced significantly from 72 per cent in 2015-19 to 55 per cent during 2020-24.
Between 2020-24, the largest share of India’s arms imports—36 per cent—came from Russia.
“India is shifting its arms supply relations towards Western suppliers, most notably France, Israel, and the USA. Despite recent public declarations from the two sides that relations between India and Russia remain friendly, the shift is also visible in India’s new and planned orders for major arms, most of which will come from Western suppliers,” notes the report.
(With inputs from agencies)
