STOCKHOLM, Sweden
India has been the world's biggest weapons importer over the last five years, Swedish think-tank SIPRI reported Monday, naming four Asian countries among the top five arms importers.
The report also highlighted how the world's major arms supplying countries had in recent years competed for trade in Libya, and in other Arab countries gripped by the recent wave of pro-democracy uprisings.
"India is the world's largest arms importer," the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said as it released its latest report on trends in the international arms trade.
"India received nine percent of the volume of international arms transfers during 2006-10, with Russian deliveries accounting for 82 percent of Indian arms imports," it said.
Its arms imports jumped 21 percent from the previous five-year-period with 71 percent of its orders being for aircraft.
India's arms purchases were driven by several factors, said Siemon Wezeman of SIPRI'S Arms Transfers Programme.
"The most often cited relate to rivalries with Pakistan and China as well as internal security challenges," he wrote.
China and South Korea held joint second place on the list of global arms imports, each with six percent, followed by Pakistan, on five percent.
Aircraft accounted for 45 percent of Pakistan's arms imports, which had bought warplanes from both China and the United States. Pakistan's arms imports were up 128 percent on the previous five-year period, SIPRI noted.
http://defense-technologynews.blogspot.com/2011/03/dtn-news-defense-news-india-worlds.html
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