Israel is also the 14th largest arms importer, 92% of its imports come from the USA
Edited by: TJVNews.com
Israel has been ranked the 10th largest international arms exporter for the past five years by an independent global security think tank.
The latest report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, measuring the arms trade from 2017 to 2021, reports that the market to Europe has increased, that the Gulf States are the main importers and that Israel remains a major player, according to an i24 News report.
The report released last month said Israel accounted for 2.4 percent of international arms exports between 2017 and 2021, with the top recipients being India, Azerbaijan and Vietnam.
Israel’s export volume, however, fell 5.6 percent during the period compared to the previous five years.
i24 News also reported that the only other Middle Eastern countries in the top 25 arms exporters are Turkey at 12th, the United Arab Emirates at 18th, and Jordan at 25th.
The top five countries dominating world trade, account for 77 percent of all exports. This is the United States with 39 percent, followed by Russia at 19 percent, then France, China and Germany.
In the top 10 exporters are Italy, the United Kingdom, South Korea and Spain, according to the research institute.
The United States delivered weapons to 103 countries between 2017 and 2021, with aircraft making up the majority of those shipments, followed by missiles and armored vehicles, with the largest share going to the Middle East, as was reported by i24News.
Russia, for its part, mainly sent arms to India, China, Egypt and Algeria, but its exports fell by 26 percent.
Europe and North America accounted for 87% of all arms exports, according to the research institute, which identified 60 countries that exported weapons during the time period, as was reported by the Times of Israel.
The study said that during that period global trade fell 4.6%. But there was a 19% increase in weapons transfers to Europe, driven by tensions with Russia, even before its invasion of Ukraine. Europe’s largest importers were the UK, Norway and the Netherlands.
TOI also reported that there was a slight increase to the Middle East, and large drops in trade to the Americas and Africa. The pandemic had very little impact on the arms trade, the report said.
Israel is also the 14th largest arms importer, accounting for 1.9 percent of the global share. Of its total imports, 92 percent come from the United States, mostly F-35 jets and guided bombs, followed by shipments from Germany (for submarines) and Italy, according to the i24 News report.
Israel’s overall imports jumped 19% over the previous five years, as was reported by TOI.
Four of the top ten importers are in the Middle East — Saudi Arabia and Egypt in third place, Qatar in sixth place and the United Arab Emirates in ninth place. Egyptian imports jumped 73 percent. India and Saudi Arabia account for 11% of global imports each.
TOI reported that Saudi Arabia stepped up its imports by 27% as it waged war in Yemen and eyed its foe Iran, with most of its shipments coming from the US.
During the time period studied, Ukraine was fighting pro-Russia separatists in its east, but not directly combating Russia, and imported very few weapons — only 0.1% of global imports, according to the TOI report.
The study said that, although the UN lifted an arms embargo on Iran in 2020, there is “no public evidence that Iran has since received or ordered notable volumes of major arms from abroad.”
The think tank’s data is partly based on estimates and includes transfers including gifts, sales and production under license.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute is an independent international institute dedicated to research into conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament. Established in 1966, SIPRI provides data, analysis and recommendations, based on open sources, to policymakers, researchers, media and the interested public. Based in Stockholm, SIPRI is regularly ranked among the most respected think tanks worldwide.
SIPRI’s vision is a world in which sources of insecurity are identified and understood, conflicts are prevented or resolved, and peace is sustained. SIPRI’s mission is to, undertake research and activities on security, conflict and peace; provide policy analysis and recommendations; facilitate dialogue and build capacities; promote transparency and accountability; and deliver authoritative information to global audiences.
SIPRI was established on the basis of a decision by the Swedish Parliament and receives a substantial part of its funding in the form of an annual grant from the Swedish Government. The Institute also seeks financial support from other organizations in order to carry out its research.
Wikipedia reported that SIPRI was ranked among the top three non-US world-wide think tanks in 2014 by the University of Pennsylvania Lauder Institute’s Global Go To Think Tanks Report. In 2020, SIPRI ranked 34th amongst think tanks globally.
SIPRI has built its reputation and standing on competence, professional skills, and the collection of hard data and precise facts, rendering accessible impartial information on weapon developments, arms transfers and production, military expenditure, as well as on arms limitations, reductions and disarmament, as was reported by Wikipedia. The task of the institute is to conduct “scientific research on questions of conflict and cooperation of importance for international peace and security with the aim of contributing to an understanding of the conditions for peaceful solution of international conflicts and for a stable peace”.
The Swedish Riksdag decided that the Institute be established on July 1, 1966 with the legal status of an independent foundation.
