The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) published data on global arms transfers on Monday that found India remains the world’s largest importer of weapons, reaching a five-year high of 11 percent of all global imports.
SIPRI also crowned India the world’s top arms importer in 2022, even after a steep decline over the preceding decade. It lost the title to Saudi Arabia for a few years after the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen began.
Imports are trending down because India is trying to become more self-sufficient. The Indian government maintains a separate budget for buying indigenously produced military hardware and has a long list of systems it wishes to begin producing on its own.
“The Indian military is large and will continue to import weapons and systems for some more years. The decline in India’s arms imports is a significant…
