Russie Continues to be India’s Largest Defense Partner

Despite India expanding its military ties with the US, Europe and Israel, Russia remains its number one supplier of weapons with America at a distant second, according to a report on global arms trade in the last five years. From 2012 to 2016, Russia supplied 68 per cent of India’s arms import, as per the survey by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) – an international think-tank that researches on conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament.In the same period, the US supplied 14 per cent of arms to India, followed by Israel (7.2 per cent).

The SIPRI report also foresees Russia maintaining the lead in supplying weapons to India – which has emerged as the biggest importer of major arms with overseas procurements exceeding that of China and Pakistan.

Modi has pledged $250 billion for the domestic defence industry to manufacture fighter jets, guns and submarines locally. But the SIPRI reports hints that India will be overwhelmingly reliant on foreign imports, mainly from Russia, the US and Israel — as has been the trend in the last five years.

Significantly, India does not figure in the top three buyers of US weapons although Washington has designated New Delhi as its Major Defence Partner.

According to the SIPRI report, 47 per cent of US weapons went to countries in the Middle East.

The five biggest arms exporters were the US, Russia, China, France and Germany, together accounting for 74 per cent of the total volume of trade in weapons in the last five years.