NEW DELHI: At the time India is taking initiatives to decrease dependence of the Indian military on foreign made arms and equipment an independent international research institute has found that while international arms transfer has remained same in a decade’s time, a major decline in Indian imports of the same. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in its new data on global arms transfers published on Monday has mentioned that Indian import declined by about one-third in 2016-2020. SIPRI is dedicated to research into conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament.
The report has factored a decade of import data and mentions, “Arms imports by India decreased by 33 per cent between 2011–15 and 2016–20.” and added, “The drop in Indian arms imports seems to have been mainly due to its complex procurement processes, combined with an attempt to reduce its dependence on Russian arms. India is planning large-scale arms imports in the coming years from several suppliers.”
As per SIPRI, Russia was the most affected supplier, although India’s imports of US arms also fell, by 46 per cent.
The decline in Indian Arms import does not reflect the international trend the arms transfer has remained same since a decade, between 2011-2015 and 2016-2020
India in the report is part of the group of countries has been put in Asia and Oceania group where the import has remained high. Indian import still have remained high.
"Asia and Oceania was the largest importing region for major arms, receiving 42 per cent of global arms transfers in 2016–20. India, Australia, China, South Korea and Pakistan were the biggest importers in the region.", the report says.
Japan’s arms imports increased by 124 per cent between 2011–15 and 2016–20. Although Taiwan’s arms imports in 2016–20 were lower than in 2011–15, it placed several large arms procurement orders with the USA in 2019, including for combat aircraft.
According to the Report, “International transfers of major arms stayed at the same level between 2011–15 and 2016–20. Substantial increases in transfers by three of the top five arms exporters—the USA, France and Germany—were largely offset by declining Russian and Chinese arms exports.”
The United States remains the largest arms exporter, increasing its global share of arms exports from 32 to 37 per cent between 2011–15 and 2016–20. Russia is the second largest arms exporter.
The biggest growth in arms imports was seen in the Middle East. SIPRI found Middle Eastern states imported 25 per cent more major arms in 2016–20 than they did in 2011–15. This reflected regional strategic competition among several states in the Gulf region. Saudi Arabia—the world’s largest arms importer—increased its arms imports by 61 per cent.