Study Says US, Russia Still World's Biggest Arms Exporters; China Bumps Off Germany To Become 3rd

RTR4TPCT — IN PHOTO: A member of the Iraqi security forces stands between Islamic State ammunition being displayed in al-Alam Salahuddin province March 17, 2015. Iraq paused its Tikrit offensive on Monday and officials called for more air strikes against Islamic State militants, while an officer said Kurdish forces sustained two more chlorine gas attacks by insurgents. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani

Hands down, the United States remained as the world’s leading exporter of arms and weapons over the past five years, a Stockholm-based think-tank revealed on Monday. But this didn’t surprise the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, noting arms exports is a “major foreign policy and security tool” for the U.S. Russia followed at second, while the world’s third leading exporter of arms and weapons had been cornered by China, bumping Germany.

Between 2005–2009 and 2010–14, the volume of U.S.’ exports of major weapons jumped by 23 percent, while Russia, during the same period, increased by 37 percent. Overall comparatively, the U.S.’ share of the volume of international arms exports was 31 percent in 2010–14, compared with Russia’s 27 percent. Chinese exports of major arms during the same period, on the other end, jumped to a whopping 143 percent.

As to clientele, the U.S.’ top client was South Korea. However, since it had a more diverse client portfolio than its competitors, South Korea’s orders only accounted nine percent of total U.S. business. There were 94 countries that bought U.S. made weaponry, with the Middle East alone accounting 32 percent of overall purchases. India, meantime, was Russia’s top client.

Germany and France completed the top five of current biggest arms exporters. However, their exports fell 43 percent and 27 percent, respectively. Together, the top five accounted for 74 percent of overall global arms exports. Completing the list of top 10 were U.K., Spain, Italy, Ukraine and Israel.

India, Saudi Arabia, China, the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan were the five biggest importers from 2010 to 2014, accounting between them for 33 percent of global imports.

The top 10 largest major weapons exporters:

United States 31 percent

Russia 27 percent

China 5 percent

Germany 5 percent

France 5 percent

UK 4 percent

Spain 3 percent

Italy 3 percent

Ukraine 3 percent

Israel 2 percent

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