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The United States continues to dump arms in the Middle East and also strengthens its control over the global arms trade: the proportion of arms exports in the world that the United States accounted for increased to more than a third in the last five years.
The United States sells many weapons to Saudi Arabia and has also expanded defense cooperation with the dictatorship. Stock Photography.
In total, the international trade in large weapons systems is no longer increasing, writes the Solna Sipri-based peace research institute in a new report. But some countries, led by Western powers like the United States, France and Germany, are selling more and more, while Eastern powers like Russia and China are sending less.
The United States is the giant, whose share of world exports increased from 32 to 37 percent in the comparison between the five-year periods 2011-2015 and 2016-2020. These weapons were sold to 96 countries, that is to say, practically half of all the nations in the world.
But especially the war- and conflict-ravaged Middle East and Southwest Asia continue to race at a breakneck pace. “Almost half, 47 percent, of US arms transfers went to the Middle East. Saudi Arabia alone accounted for 24 percent of US arms exports,” Sipri writes.
The Saudi dictatorship increased its arms purchases by 61 percent, while another hard-line superpower in the region, Egypt, spent up to 136 percent more to strengthen its defenses.
Even further east in Asia, tensions are high and when, for example, China and India improve internally, it is not visible in international statistics. But you can see that neighboring countries with less technology of their own weapons buy from the great powers. For example, Pakistan and Bangladesh were the main customers of China’s arms industry for the past five years, although China’s total exports fell 8 percent.
China also acts as a driving force for the arms trade in the region in other ways.
“For many countries in Asia and Oceania, a growing perception of China as a threat is the main driver of arms imports,” said Siemon T Wezeman, a researcher at Sipri, according to a press release.
“More extensive imports are planned and several countries in the region are also targeting domestic production of important weapons.”
