US No. 1 arms exporter, China, India top importers

While the United States remains the world's biggest arms supplier, China and India are the  biggest importers of conventional weapons, the sale of which rose sharply by 22% globally during the 2005-2009 period a leading Swedish peace research group said.

While China's arms imports accounted for nine per cent of the global defence sales, the same figure for India was seven per cent, SIPRI said. Eighty-nine per cent of China's arms imports originated from Russia, it said while identifying France and Ukraine (three per cent each) as the other major sources of conventional weapons. In the case of India, Russia supplied 77 per cent of the country's imported conventional defence equipment while United Kingdom supplied eight per cent and Israel providing five per cent of its arms requirements.

The SIPRI said combat aircraft accounted for 27 per cent of the volume of international arms transfers during 2005-2009. Orders and deliveries of these potentially destabilising weapon systems have led to arms race concerns in the following regions of tension: the Middle East, North Africa, South America, South Asia and South East Asia.

For more: US No. 1 arms exporter, China, India top importers: SIPRI- Politics/Nation-News-The Economic Times