World News

Ukraine became the world’s largest importer of major arms in the period 2020–24, with its imports increasing nearly 100 times over compared with 2015–19. European arms imports overall grew by 155 per cent between the same periods, as states responded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and uncertainty over the future of US foreign policy.

The United States further increased its share of global arms exports to 43 per cent, while Russia’s exports fell by 64 per cent, according to new data on international arms transfers published today by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), available at

The top 10 arms exporters in 2020–24 were the same as those in 2015–19 but Russia (accounting for 7.8 per cent of global arms exports) fell to third place behind France (9.6 per cent), while Italy (4.8 per cent) jumped from 10th to sixth place.

At least 35 states sent weapons to Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, and substantial further deliveries are in the pipeline. Ukraine received 8.8 per cent of global arms imports in 2020–24.

Arms imports by the European NATO members more than doubled between 2015–19 and 2020–24 (+105 per cent). The USA supplied 64 per cent of these arms, a substantially larger share than in 2015–19 (52 per cent). The other main suppliers were France -which became the world’s second largest arms supplie -and South Korea (accounting for 6.5 per cent each), Germany (4.7 per cent) and Israel (3.9 per cent).

Arms exports by Russia fell sharply (–64 per cent) between 2015–19 and 2020–24. The decline started before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022: in 2020 and 2021 export volumes were much smaller than in any year in the previous two decades. Russia delivered major arms to 33 states in 2020–24. Two thirds of Russian arms exports went to three states: India (38 per cent), China (17 per cent) and Kazakhstan (11 per cent).

China was the fourth largest exporter of arms in 2020–24, with 5.9 per cent of global arms exports. Despite China’s efforts to increase its arms exports, many large importers do not buy Chinese arms for political reasons.

India was the world’s second largest arms importer, with its imports reflecting perceived threats from both China and Pakistan.

Japan (+93 per cent) was the only East Asian state that saw an increase in its arms imports.

Arms imports by states in the Middle East fell by 20 per cent between 2015–19 and 2020–24. Four of the top 10 global importers in 2020–24 were in the Middle East: Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Kuwait. Qatar was the world’s third largest arms importer in 2020–24 (up from 10th largest in 2015–19). Between 2015–19 and 2020–24, Saudi Arabia’s arms imports decreased by 41 per cent.

African arms imports fell by 44 per cent between 2015–19 and 2020–24. This was mainly due to large decreases in imports by Algeria (–73 per cent) and Morocco (–26 per cent). Arms imports by states in sub-Saharan Africa increased by 4.2 per cent.