New Delhi, India

India continues to be the world’s largest arms importer, with Russia being the prime source of its procurement despite declining share in past years, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reported on Monday (Mar 11).

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India accounted for 9.8 per cent of the total global imports during 2019-2023. India’s arms imports increased 4.7 per cent between 2014-18 and 2019-23, despite the government’s continued efforts to boost domestic defence manufacturing and procurement.

However, Russia's share in Indian exports is slowly falling. In the period under review, Russia accounted for 36 per cent of India’s total arms imports, a first after the 1960-64 term when Russia’s share fell short of the 50 per cent mark.

The share is further expected to fall as India turns to France and the US for military hardware and Russia gets occupied with meeting its domestic demands in the face of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

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France accounted for 33 per cent of India’s total arms imports while the figure stood at 13 per cent for the US. With the direct acquisition of 31 armed MQ-9B Sky Guardian drones from the US for $3.9 billion as well as 26 Rafale-M fighters from France for $6 billion, the share of the two countries is likely to go up in the current five-year period.

The China factor

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Arms imports by Japan and South Korea, two of China’s key neighbours, were also up by 155 per cent and 6.5 per cent respectively.

According to experts, this trend was driven by concerns over China’s continued aggression in the Indo-Pacific region.

"There is little doubt that the sustained high levels of arms imports by Japan and other US allies and partners in Asia and Oceania are largely driven by one key factor: concern over China's ambitions," said Siemon Wezeman, Senior Researcher with the SIPRI Arms Transfers Programme.

Also read: China sends research ship to allegedly spy on India`s Agni-5 missile launch: Reports

The report added that the US emerged as a key supplier to the region during this period.

Meanwhile, China’s own arms imports were down by 44 per cent, partly because its main supplier Russia is tied up in the domestic market.

China and Pakistan

The military and defence cooperation between two of India’s major rivals China and Pakistan grew deeper during the five-year period. A whopping 61 per cent of China’s total defence exports went to Pakistan, followed by 11 per cent to Bangladesh.

(With inputs from agencies)