The United States and Russia retained their lead in arms exports. These are the conclusions reached by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in a new report published on Monday, March 15th.
Meanwhile, the United States has increased its lead over Russia in the arms trade. From 2015 to 2020, Washington increased its arms exports and now has a 37 percent market share. Russian arms deliveries in the same period fell by 22 percent, now Russia’s share in the world arms market is 20 percent. France and Germany, occupying the third and fourth lines, on the contrary, increased their arms exports – by 44 and 21 percent, respectively. China, which closes the top five, like Russia, has cut arms supplies, reducing its market share to 5.2 percent.
At the same time, the export of arms to the Middle East has significantly increased over the past five years. At the same time, arms purchases by Saudi Arabia increased by 61 percent, Egypt – by 136 percent, and Qatar – by 361 percent. India turned out to be the main importer of Russian weapons, accounting for 23 percent of supplies from Russia.
In January, it was reported that the administration of US President Joe Biden had suspended a number of arms deals to other countries. The State Department explained this by the need to “enable the new leadership to assess” such transactions, which is a common procedure when the new administration starts working.