India has become the largest importer of weapons, beating China, its main rival in Asia and the former world leader in the procurement of weapons, said the report made public yesterday by the Stockholm International Research Institute. In third place of the leading importers of arms came another long-time antagonist of India: Pakistan. Thus, the global arms race is increasingly shifting to Asia, preserving the greatest potential for armed conflict.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, from 2007 to 2011 arms sales worldwide increased by almost a quarter (24%), and the top five were entirely composed of Asian countries, there have been radical changes. In the past the first line of the ranking was occupied by China, now the leader of the arms race was captured by India, which accounts for 10% of the purchase of weapons sold in the world. Beijing was in fourth place in a new ranking, apart from India, behind South Korea and Pakistan (Singapore occupies the fifth).
Today, the volume of imported weapons by India is twice the amount of China. A marked reduction in purchases of arms by China due to the fact that in recent years the Chinese defense industry has made a significant breakthrough. This has allowed China to produce many kinds of weapons in the country, without having to purchase abroad.
Disclosure of the report was preceded by a statement of Indian parliament’s new budget for 2012-2013 fiscal year, the increase in military spending was much more than in previous years. Appropriations for military purposes in the new year will grow by 17%, resulting in India’s defense budget will reach $ 40 billion.
Experts do not doubt that the military expenditure of Delhi will continue to grow. “Despite the fact that India is in talks on the border issue with China, little progress is not observed, because the differences between the parties with experience in the war in 1962, is too deep. Beijing does not recognize the McMahon Line boundary separating Tibet and India. In addition, Another scene of a costly rivalry is between India and Pakistan. There has been no normalization of relations with the second regional enemy of India – Pakistan, with which India fought three times over the past decade. The presence of two long-standing conflicts that have no diplomatic solution in the foreseeable future, forcing India to raise the bar consistently in military spending.
Experts believe that the rapid growth of India’s arms market will lead to further tightening of competition among the world’s leading manufacturers, fighting for Indian orders. The Russian military-industrial complex, in the first decades of Indian independence, dominated the market. Unlike earlier times, the Indian side today can afford large quantities of the most expensive weapons. In this regard, low price, which had previously helped the Russian manufacturers to win in the Indian market is no longer the determining factor for the Indians when choosing a supplier. According to experts, Moscow has increasingly come to the transfer of technology to India, including sensitive areas such as rocket science, the construction of nuclear submarines, as well as technologies to create next-generation combat aircraft.