SIPRI Report

According to the Swedish think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), India remains biggest arms importer between 2018-22 despite drop in overall imports.

14 Mar 2023

Context:

According to the Swedish think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), India remains biggest arms importer between 2018-22 despite drop in overall imports.

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Image Source: The Hindu

Findings of the report

Top 3 Arms Suppliers to India (2018-2022)

Rank	Supplier	Share of Imports
1	Russia	45.1 %
2	France	28.6 %
3	U.S.	11.1 %

Among the top 10 arms exporters for the period 2018 to 2022, India was the biggest arms export market to three countries — Russia, France and Israel — and the second largest export market to South Korea.
- For the same period, India remained the largest arms importer followed by Saudi Arabia.
With an 11% share of total global arms imports, India was the world’s biggest importer of major arms in 2018 to 2022, a position it has held for the period 1993 to 2022.
- It retained this position even though its arms imports dropped by 11% between 2013 to 2017 and 2018 to 2022.
Russia’s position as India’s main arms supplier is under pressure due to strong competition from other supplier states, increased Indian arms production and, since 2022, also the impact of war in Ukraine.
India’s arms imports from France increased by 489% between 2013 to 2017 and 2018 to 2022.
- France therefore displaced the U.S. to become the second largest supplier to India in 2018 to 2022.
India was also the largest recipient of Russian arms from 2013 to 2017, but exports decreased by 37% between the two periods.