Dogs of war: Russian rumble makes Ukraine top arms buyer

NEW DELHI: Ukraine has displaced India as world’s largest arms importer in 2020-24 timeframe, with its imports skyrocketing by nearly 100 times compared to 2015-19 due to its ongoing debilitating war with Russia.
India notched up 8.3% of the global arms imports in 2020-24, driven largely by heightened tensions with China and Pakistan, while Ukraine stood at 8.8%, as per latest data on international arms transfers released by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Monday.
Overall, European arms imports grew by 155%, fuelled by fears of Russia’s expansionism after invading Ukraine in Feb 2022 and prevailing uncertainty over the future of US foreign policy under new Trump administration.
Pakistan’s arms import, incidentally, increased by 61% between 2015-19 and 2020-24. It was placed fifth in world ranking, with 81% of its weapons coming from China, in yet another indicator of the ever-expanding military collusiveness between India’s two hostile neighbours.

There was a silver lining for India despite its strategically-vulnerable position of being a top arms importer, with SIPRI noting that its imports decreased by 9.3% between 2015-19 and 2020-24, partly due to Delhi ’s increasing ability to design and produce its own weapons.
The figures, however, do not account for deals where deliveries have not yet begun. This includes, for instance, the mega $3.3 billion contract with US govt for 31 weaponised MQ-9B ‘Predator’ drones, along with another $520 million contract with manufacturer General Atomics to set up an MRO facility in India, inked last Oct.
Russia remains India’s main weapons supplier, accounting for 36% of its arms imports. Russia’s share, however, has steadily declined from 72% in 2010-14 and 55% in 2015-19 because India has increasingly turned to US, France and Israel. Russian arms exports, in fact, have fallen sharply by 64% in the latest five-year period, with China too relying mainly on its own military-industrial complex.
Despite recent declarations from India and Russia that their defence ties remain as robust as ever, SIPR said, “The shift is visible in India’s new and planned orders for major arms, most of which will come from Western suppliers.”
France accounts for 33% of India’s imports, with Israel placed third with 13%. India, of course, is getting set to ink two mega deals with France for direct acquisition of 26 Rafale-Marine fighters as well as construction of three additional Scorpene submarines by Mazagon Docks, collectively worth around Euro 10.6 billion (almost Rs 1 lakh crore). India, incidentally, is the biggest arms customer of France, Russia and Israel.
The fourth largest military spender after US, China and Russia, India needs to single-mindedly pursue cutting-edge defence R&D, expand its defence-industrial base and streamline procurement procedures to ensure it gets the biggest bang for its buck.