(NEWSTABULOUS) – Arms importers: You would probably be surprised to know that over the last five years, the most weapons have been imported by India.
According to “Yahoo Finance”, The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPR) said, as it released its latest report on trends in the international arms trade, “India is the world’s largest arms importer”.
The largest arms suppliers have been in competition to trade with Arab countries involved in the current pro-democracy and anti-government uprisings, including Libya.
Of the total amount of international arms received during 2006-2010, 9% were received by India, and Russia was responsible for 82% of the imports by India. India’s imports of arms skyrocketed 21% from the prior 5 year span and 71% of orders were for aircraft.
Several factors affected India’s arms acquisitions, some of which are rivalries with China and Pakistan and its own internal security needs.
South Korea and China are both in second place for their purchases of arms and 5% puts Pakistan in 4th place. Greece finishes in the top 5th place for its arms imports and 4% of global imports.
Since the UN arms embargo on Libya (Sept.2003), Britain, Russia, Italy and France all tried to get the orders from Kaddafi’s government. Libya is now using tanks, warplanes and artillery to get back the territories held by the anti-government forces.
Between 2006 and 2010 Egypt got 60% of its major arms from the US, which included M-1A11 tanks and M-113 armored vehicles – like the ones used during the 2011 unrest.
The anti-government uprising in Egypt was responsible for Hosni Mubarak to step down and 11 Feb. 2011.