Europe, the world's largest arms importer - Accounts for 33% of the global market during the period 2021-2025
Europe has become the world's largest arms importer over the past five years as governments reacted to the threat from Russia and declining confidence in US security commitments, data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute showed.
European countries tripled arms imports in 2021-25 compared to 2016-2020 to supply Ukraine in its defense against Russian invasion and to rebuild their militaries after decades of lack of investment.
According to the report, the significant increase in the flow of arms to European countries increased global transfers by almost 10%. Europe accounted for 33% of global arms imports, up from 12% in the previous five-year period.
Despite the increase in domestic production, European states continued to increase purchases of American weapons, especially fighter jets and long-range air defense systems.
Arms imports from Middle Eastern countries fell by 13%, although Saudi Arabia and Qatar were among the top four individual buyers. The decline largely reflected large Saudi orders in the previous period that had yet to be integrated.
Even before the recent US and Israeli attacks on Iran, countries in the region had placed significant new orders that have not yet been reflected in the figures. The current conflict could further increase procurement, particularly of anti-missile and air defense systems.
First they will replace what they have been using, but they will also consider buying more equipment to protect themselves even better than they can now, analysts say.
In terms of suppliers, the US increased its share of the global arms export market to 42% from 36%, solidifying its dominance. France was the second largest supplier with 9.8% of global exports, while Russia's share fell to 6.8% from 21% following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Europe's combined export share was 28%, four times that of Russia and five times that of China.
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