168: Global arms trade. facts and trends

In the light of the Ukrainian conflict that has been going on for four years and the US and Israeli military action against Iran since the end of February, the statistics of the global arms trade are becoming especially relevant.

O՞v and o՞Who is selling the weapon and where?՞Do they use it and how?՞How have sales figures changed over the past ten years? Stockholm Institute for Peace Studies (SIPRI) on March 9 presented data that partially provide answers to these and other questions. No՞ that military conflict is, in fact, impossible without the use of weapons and their production or purchases abroad.

It is obvious՝ the largest producer and seller of weapons has long been the USA։ «Leader of the free worldn” with its sales in the last five years (2021-2025) occupied 42% of the arms export market. This is more than the seven arms exporting countries, which together have only 40.8% of the market: France 9.8%, Russia 6.8%, Germany 5.7%, China 5.6%, Italy 5.1%, Israel 4.4% and Britain 3.4%.

During the mentioned period, 99 countries of all regions bought American weapons, for 76 of which the USA was among the top three importers of weapons. Naturally, the most weapons were bought in Europe (35 countries received 38% of all American supplies). Latin American countries (18 countries) took the second place in the number of countries, Asia and Oceania (17 countries) and Africa (17 countries) shared the third place.

Notably, US arms exports increased by 27 percent over the previous five-year period (2016-2020), while global arms exports grew by only 9.2 percent.

In addition, arms sales in Europe increased more than three times (215%). Naturally, a significant part of them are arms supplies to Ukraine, which were provided by the Biden administration in order to prevent Russia from achieving its goals within the framework of the Ukrainian conflict resolution.

It should be noted: The Middle East, where only 12 countries were buyers of American weapons, received a third (33%) of all American supplies, compared to 45% in the previous period. Taking into account the significant increase in US arms sales in 2021-2025 and the fact that the first place among buyers is Saudi Arabia (12% of all sales), and the top ten importers are Qatar (7.4%) and Kuwait (4.2%), the total volume of purchases by Middle Eastern countries decreased by 6%.

It can be assumed that one of the reasons why the US unleashed the “epic fury” military operation against Iran was the desire to increase its arms sales to the region. And all the statements about democracy and human rights are just a fig leaf with which Washington tries to cover its economic and political interests.

After all, taking into account the cost of the American Patriot air defense systems, as well as their anti-missile systems, which were mostly used by the countries of the region to protect themselves from the Iranian “Martyrs” during several days of military operations, the countries of the Middle East will have to significantly expand their budgets in order to replenish their reserves. On the other hand, only according to official data, the first weeks of hostilities cost the US $2 billion a day, so the Americans will have to sell a lot of weapons.

As the above figures show, comparing the US and other arms exporters is quite difficult, so SIPRI tried to estimate together the EU countries, which represent 28% of the global market, or two-thirds of US sales.  That volume exceeded the sales of Russian arms four times and Chinese arms five times. In general, EU arms exports increased by 36 percent in 2021-2025 compared to the previous period.

France is the second largest exporter of weapons (9.8% of the world market), supplying its products to 63 countries around the world.. About 31% of sales go to Asia and Oceania, 28% to the Middle East, and 21% to European countries. The top three arms buyers are India (24%), Egypt (11%) and Greece (10%). In addition, French arms supplies to European countries increased 5.5 times, and the total export volume increased by 21 percent.

Fourth place Germany (5.7%) increased its sales by 15%directing them to other countries in Europe (41%), the Middle East (33%), as well as Asia and Oceania (17%).

Oddly enough, Italy increased its arms exports the most (2.5 times), representing 5.1 percent of world sales and ranking sixth in terms of sales. Most of them go to the Middle East, 59%, while other regions are less interested in Italian weapons: Asia and Oceania, 16%, Europe, 13%.

Having completed the observation of EU countries, we cannot ignore Russia, which ranks third in the list of global exporters (6.8% of the market).  The main buyer of Russian weapons is India (48% of sales), and the second place is shared by Belarus and China (13% each). Unlike all other countries in the top ten exporting countries, Russia is the only country that not only did not increase, but also decreased arms exports (by 64%). The reasons for this are quite obvious, considering that all NATO countries are fighting against it at the hands of Ukraine.

It remains to mention China, which occupies the 5th place in the list of exporters, with a share of 5.6 percent of the world market., which supplies its products mainly to Asian countries. The top three buyers of Chinese arms are Pakistan (61%), Serbia (6.8%) and Thailand (4.7%).

Who became the main arms importer in 2021-2025?

There was no doubt that over the past five years, Ukraine has become the largest arms buyer in the world with a 9.7% share of the entire arms market. Although he can be called a buyer only with quotation marks, because he received most of the supplied weapons either for free or on credit, which he is unlikely to ever be able to repay.

To understand the full volume of weapons received by Kiev, it is enough to say that a quarter of all American supplies to Europe (or 9.4% of all arms exports from the United States) were transferred directly to Ukraine. Despite the fact that in 2025 information on arms received from abroad was kept secret by Kiev, SIPRI noted that the largest suppliers to Ukraine are the USA (41%), Germany (14%) and Poland (9.4%).

These data allow us to claim that the complete cessation of the supply of American weapons to Kiev will allow a quick end to the Ukrainian conflict.  Maybe not in the way the globalists would like, because Russia would unconditionally achieve its goals by military means, which the West does not want to allow in any way.

India ranks second among arms importers (8.2% of global sales). Its main suppliers are Russia (40%), France (29%) and Israel (15%).

The third and fourth places are occupied by two Middle Eastern countries: Saudi Arabia (6.8% of the market) and Qatar (6.4%). Their main supplier is the USA (77% and 48% of imports, respectively). And the top five buyers of weapons in the world is Pakistan (4.2 percent of the market), which is supplied with weapons mainly by China (80 percent of supplies).

If we divide all the buyers of weapons in the world by regions, then one third of all deliveries in 2021-2025 were made to Europe (33%), which took the first place in importing weapons. Asia and Oceania are in second place (31%), and the Middle East is third (26%). In the previous five-year period, Asia and Oceania (42%) and the Middle East (32%) were the main buyers of weapons, while Europe remained in third place (12%).

Noticeable is՝ over the years there has been a definite redirection of global arms imports to Europe, where d:its main the importer It was Ukraine. It cannot be ruled out that Europe, which is preparing for a military conflict with Russia, the Middle East, which urgently needs to buy new air defense systems and missiles for them (and the conflict with Iran is not known how and when it will end), as well as the countries of Asia, will compete for the first places in the coming years. Taiwan is wary of a military conflict with the PRC, and the US’s regional partners (South Korea and Japan) have already committed to increasing purchases of American weapons.

Peaceful life on earth, it seems, does not have to wait.

Yegor: VOLKOV

fondsk.ru

Translation by Zhanna Avetisyan

—