Stockholm: In the last five years, there has been an increase of 25% in the Gulf countries’ weapons. Out of these, Saudi becomes the largest weapons importer and Saudi has purchased nearly 11% of the total weapons sold worldwide. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the thinktank that monitors the weapons trades worldwide, revealed this information. The United States has decided to stop weapons sale to Saudi. SIPRI has said that this US decision may have little or no effect on Saudi and the other Gulf countries’ purchase of weapons.
SIPRI published its report on Monday. The first phase of the report gives the statistic of the global weapons trades over the last five years. Between 2016 and 2020, no major deviations were noted in the global weapons transactions. But the thinktank said that there was a massive increase in the transactions of the Gulf countries. SIPRI has compared these figures to the transactions between 2011 and 2015 for this purpose.
The report infers that along with the usual issues like the Iranian nuclear program, arms race among the Gulf countries, the conflict in Yemen and increasing tension between Saudi and Qatar, became the major contributing factors. Saudi and its Arab allies failed in the Yemen conflict. But SIPRI has noted a massive increase in the weapons purchased by Saudi and United Arab Emirates from the United States. There was a 61% increase in the Saudi weapons purchase.
As per the SIPRI report, the biggest weapons exporter, the United States, sold weapons to 96 counties in the world. Out of this, nearly 25% of supplies were to Saudi Arabia alone. These transactions were carried out during the tenure of former President Donald Trump.
Whereas, between 2016 and 2020, Saudi is involved in 11% of the total weapons transactions globally. As per SIPRI, Egypt’s weapons transactions, entangled in a dispute with Turkey over the Mediterranean Sea region, showed an increase of 136%, whereas Qatar showed an increase of 361%.
The United States heads the list of five top weapons suppliers of the world. The United States has a 37% share in the total defence market. The SIPRI report reveals that the Russian share in the weapons market, the second-largest exporter, has declined as India has reduced the purchase of weapons.
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