Top of Form Asia is world’s top weapon importer: report

Over the past five years, Asia and Oceania accounted for 44 percent of conventional arms imports volume, it said.

That compares to 19 percent for Europe, 17 percent for the Middle East, 11 percent for North and South America, and 9 percent for Africa, the report said.

“First of all, in the West, defense budgets remain under pressure due to current economic woes, and military cuts continue to spread to procurement programs, equipment holdings and defense organizations. Meanwhile, Asia is becoming increasingly militarized, mainly as a result of rapid economic growth,” Meng Xiangqing, a security strategist at the People’s Liberation Army University of National Defense, told the Global Times.

SIPRI said the top-five Asian countries accounted for almost a third of the volume of international arms imports.

Gary Li, head of Current Intelligence at Exclusive Analysis – a London-based risk consultancy – echoed Meng. Li said the prosperous economy in Asia is the primary reason for the weapons-import increase.

“The countries are becoming more prosperous, and can finally embark on military modernization. Bear in mind that most of the militaries in Asia are several generations behind the most advanced militaries of today, and military modernization is always high on the agenda,” Li told the Global Times.

“As for certain larger countries, such as China and India, there are needs for military modernization due to the sheer size, complexities, and spectrum of security issues facing them. To be able to respond to both conventional and non-conventional security challenges of the future will require steady increases in military technology, spending and imports,” Li said.

The report said India’s imports of major weapons increased by 38 percent between 2002 and 2011. At the same time, its neighbor, Pakistan, was the third largest. It accepted delivery of “a significant quantity of combat aircraft during this period.”

Both countries “have accepted and will continue to accept delivery of large quantities of tanks,” it also said.

Li said geopolitics is the ever present driver for arms imports. “For policy makers of certain countries such as South Korea, military modernization is the only real guarantee for national security. In terms of Pakistan and India, the reasons are self-explanatory,” he said.

However, he dismissed these figures as proof of an arms race in the region.

“I don’t think we are at that stage just yet. The actual capabilities of the platforms imported into the region are not going to upset the position of the only world superpower, the US, anytime soon,” Li said.

“Countries in the region are starting to build up robust research and development bases as many weapons imports these days come with technology transfers. This equates to more in-depth and long lasting capability increases and this could have implications for regional disputes in the near future,” he added.

US manufacturers, which still rank as the world’s top arms sellers, have seen exports increase by 24 percent from a year ago, the SIPRI report said. Asia and Oceania are the largest recipients, accounting for 45 percent of US exports, followed by the Middle East (27 percent) and Europe (18 percent).

Meng said major Asian importing nations are seeking to develop their own indigenous weapons programs, such as aircraft and missile systems, and decrease their reliance on external sources of supply.