Europe new arms hot spot, report says

STOCKHOLM－Europe saw the world's biggest rise in arms imports in the past five years, a trend set to accelerate following recent rearmament commitments amid the Ukraine crisis, researchers said on Monday.

While arms exports declined globally by 4.6 percent from 2017 to 2021 compared with the preceding five years, Europe posted a 19 percent increase, according to a study published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

"Europe is the new hot spot," said Siemon Wezeman, co-author of the annual report for over three decades.

"We are going to increase our military spending not just by a little bit but by a lot. We need new weapons and a lot of that will come from imports," said Wezeman, adding that most were likely to come from other European countries and the United States.

Germany in particular has already announced plans to increase its military spending, as have Denmark and Sweden.

European countries spooked by the Ukraine crisis are expected to beef up their militaries with fighter jets, such as the F-35 from the US, missiles, artillery and other heavy weapons.

"Most of these things take a bit of time. You have to go through the process, you have to decide, you have to order, you have to produce. This generally takes a couple of years at least," Wezeman said.

He said the upward trend started after Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, with the effects visible now.

Europe's share of the global arms trade has risen from 10 to 13 percent in the past five years, and this share will increase substantially, according to Wezeman.

The opaque nature of many contracts and donations of weapons without payment make it difficult to provide an exact figure for the world arms trade, but experts estimate turnover at close to $100 billion a year.

According to the Stockholm research institute, Asia and Oceania remained the main importing region over the past five years, home to 43 percent of arms transfers.

In the Middle East, the second-largest market, accounting for 32 percent of global arms imports, the increase was 3 percent, driven mainly by investments in Qatar amid tensions with its Gulf neighbors.

"The current oil prices mean they're going to have a lot of income and that usually translates into large orders for arms," Wezeman notes.

The Americas and Africa have seen their imports decline sharply, by 36 and 34 percent respectively, with each region accounting for about 6 percent of global arms imports.

In terms of individual countries, India and Saudi Arabia share the top spot as the largest importers, each accounting for 11 percent.

When it comes to exporting countries, the US leads the pack with 39 percent.

Agencies via Xinhua