NEW DELHI: Russia remains the biggest arms supplier of equipment and systems for the Indian Armed Forces, according to the Sweden-based Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). SIPRI also mentions in its 2025 report that the highest percentage of pending supplies of Russian exports are for India.
Overall, India continues to remain one of the biggest arms importers of the world. Among the top importers in 2020–24, SIPRI identified 162 states as importers of major arms in 2020–24. The top five arms importers—Ukraine, India, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan— received 35 per cent of global arms imports in the period.
Elaborating on the import trend pertaining to India, SIPRI finds, “tensions with China and Pakistan largely drive its arms imports.”
“India was the world’s second largest arms importer in 2020–24 with an 8.3 per cent share of global imports. Indian arms imports decreased by 9.3 per cent between 2015–19 and 2020–24. The drop was at least partly the result of India’s increasing ability to design and produce its own weapons, making it less reliant on imports.”
The largest share of India’s imports came from Russia (36 per cent); however, this was a significantly smaller share than in 2015–19 (55 per cent) and 2010–14 (72 per cent). Going by the trends, “India is shifting its arms supply relations towards Western suppliers, most notably France, Israel and the USA.”
As per the SIPRI report, “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.”
Russia’s decreasing share in Indian Defence import
Arms exports by Russia dropped by 64 per cent between 2015–19 and 2020–24. Russia accounted for 7.8 per cent of global arms exports in 2020–24.
The decline in Russia’s arms exports started before its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In 2020 and 2021 export volumes were much smaller (ranging from 22 to 73 percent lower) than in any year of the preceding two decades (i.e. 2000–19).
This was largely as a result of a decrease in orders from China and India (see the importer section below). In 2024 the volume of Russian arms exports remained at around the same level as in 2023, which was 47 per cent lower than in 2022.
The decrease since 2022 is likely mostly related to Russia’s decision to prioritize the production of major arms for its armed forces over those for export. The effects of multilateral trade sanctions imposed on Russia and increased pressure from the USA and its allies on states to avoid buying Russian arms.
As TNIE quoted the SIPRI findings in 2024 , the decrease in the Russian share of weaponry in the Indian Armed Forces was visible. “Although Russia remained India’s main arms supplier (accounting for 36 percent of its arms imports), this was the first five-year period since 1960-64 when deliveries from Russia (or the Soviet Union before 1991) made up less than half of India’s arms imports.”
Asia and Oceania Biggest arms importers
The report highlighted India’s consistent ranking as one of the top arms importers on the past few years. The only surprise was Ukraine coming at the top of the list.
As for the global trend in arms imports, the states in Europe saw an increase by 155 per cent between 2015–19 and 2020–24. However, there was almost no change in the global volume of arms transfers between the two periods (–0.6 per cent) because increases in arms transfers to Europe and the Americas were offset by overall decreases in transfers to all other regions.
SIPRI said, “Ukraine was the world’s largest importer of major arms in 2020–24, as its imports increased nearly 100 times over (+9627 per cent) compared with 2015–19. It was the only European state among the world’s top 10 arms importers in 2020–24. The United States was by far the largest exporter of major arms in 2020–24 with a share of 43 per cent of global arms exports. Russia’s arms exports decreased by 64 per cent between 2015–19 and 2020–24, making it the world’s third largest arms exporter behind the USA and France.”
Though, the arms imports by states in Asia and Oceania dropped by 21 per cent between 2015–19 and 2020–24, mainly because of a sharp decrease in Chinese arms imports. Nevertheless, Asia and Oceania remained the region with the highest volume of arms imports, accounting for 33 per cent of the global total in 2020–24. Four of the world’s 10 largest arms importers in the period were in Asia and Oceania: India, Pakistan, Japan and Australia. The main suppliers to the region were the USA (accounting for 37 per cent of regional arms imports), Russia (17 per cent) and China (14 per cent).
The top exporters list
SIPRI has identified 64 states as exporters of major arms in 2020–24. The five largest exporters of arms during that period—the USA, France, Russia, China and Germany—accounted for just under three quarters (72 per cent) of all arms exports. US and French arms exports rose between 2015–19 and 2020–24, while Russian, Chinese and German arms exports fell. The USA and states in Western Europe together accounted for 73 per cent of all arms exports in 2020–24, compared with 61 per cent in 2015–19.
The USA’s arms exports grew by 21 per cent between 2015–19 and 2020–24, and its share of global arms exports went from 35 per cent to 43 per cent, which was almost as much as the next eight largest exporters combined. The USA supplied major arms to 107 states in 2020–24.
Other arms exporter
Among the other major exporters, finds SIPRI, China accounted for 5.9 per cent of global arms exports in 2020–24, which was a slightly lower share than in 2015–19. “While China is looking to increase its arms exports globally, many of the world’s largest importers still choose not to buy major arms from China for political reasons.”, think tank added.
