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US is India's 2nd biggest arms supplier, Israel 3rd
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Arul Louis | 17 Mar, 2018
As New Delhi diversifies its arms purchases, the US is rapidly
increasing its arms sales to India, emerging over the last five years as
its second biggest supplier by providing 15 per cent of its weapons
imports, a study by Sipri said.
Washington increased its sales by
more than five times compared to the previous five years, the
authoritative Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said in
its report released this week.
Israel has moved up to the third
spot accounting for 11 per cent of India's imports during the 2013-17
calendar years, Sipri added.
Although Russia remained by far India's biggest arms seller, it share of total imports has fallen.
Russia
had a 62 per cent share of India's arms imports during the past five
years, down from 79 per cent in 2008-12, according to the report that
tracks the global arms trade.
Overall, India is the world's
biggest importer of major arms accounting for 12 per cent of the total
global imports during the last five years and it increased purchases
abroad by 24 per cent compared to the previous five-year period, Sipri
said.
"The tensions between India, on the one side, and Pakistan
and China, on the other, are fuelling India's growing demand for major
weapons, which it remains unable to produce itself, Sipri Senior
Researcher Siemon Wezeman wrote.
"China, by contrast, is becoming
increasingly capable of producing its own weapons and continues to
strengthen its relations with Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar through
arms supplies," he wrote.
In contrast to India, Pakistan's arms
imports declined significantly during the last five years, when imports
from the US dropped dramatically compared to the previous five years
while supplies from China increased.
"Despite its continuing
tensions with India and ongoing internal conflicts, Pakistan's arms
imports decreased by 36 per cent between 2008-12 and 2013-17," the
report said.
"Pakistan accounted for 2.8 per cent of global arms imports in 2013-17."
Pakistan's
arms imports from the US dropped by 76 per cent in the latest five-year
period compared with the previous one, the study said.
China was
Pakistan's main source of arms in 2013-17, and there was a large
increase in Chinese arms exports to Bangladesh in that period, Sipri
said.
According to supplementary arms import data for India
provided to IANS by Sipri, the share of India's imports from the US
increased from 2.7 per cent of its total during 2008-12 to 15 per cent
in the latest five-year period as it overtook Uzbekistan, Britain and
Israel.
Uzbekistan, which was India's second biggest import
source accounting for 4.3 of its purchases abroad during 2008-12 did not
sell any after 2011, according to the data.
Weapons imports from
Britain fell to 3.2 per cent of the total during the last five years,
while it was 5.2 per cent in 2008-12, a drop of 23 per cent during that
period that moved it down from the third spot to the fifth.
France
has moved up to the fourth spot accounting for 4.6 per cent of India's
imports during the last five years, an increase of 572 per cent compared
to just 0.8 per cent.
Sipri does not assign monetary values for
the arms trade and uses its own system called Trend-Indicator Value
(TVI) because "data available from public sources will give sometimes
monetary values, but also often such values are not available, not
detailed, not clear or not comparable (between countries who report on
different 'weapons' or as the coverage changes over time) enough to be
useful," Wezeman explained to IANS.
Under this way calculating, India's total TVI rose from 14,608 during 2008-12 to 18,048 for 2013-17.
According
to this valuation system, India's arms purchases have come down during
the last full three years of Bharatiya Janata Party government compared
to the last three full years of the Congress-led United Progressive
Alliance rule.
During 2011-13, India's imports were valued at
13,319 TVI by Sipri, but only 9,499 TVI in 2015-17. When both parties
held power at different times during 2014, the imports were 3,227 TVI.
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Customs Exchange Rates |
Currency |
Import |
Export |
US Dollar
|
66.20
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64.50 |
UK Pound
|
87.50
|
84.65 |
Euro
|
78.25
|
75.65 |
Japanese
Yen |
58.85 |
56.85 |
As on 13 Aug, 2022 |
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