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Turkey in top ten among arms buyers in the world
The report ranked China, India, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the neighboring Greece among the five largest arms purchasers during 2005-2009. The extended of prolific arms buyers also include Turkey, Singapore, Pakistan, Malaysia, Israel, Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Egypt, Iran, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Sudan, Chile and Venezuela.
“I think one should stress that political leaders in different regions of the world have expressed concerns their region is on the verge of an arms race,” Paul Holtom, director of SIPRI’s arms transfer programme, said to IPS.
SIPRI data on deliveries and orders shows signs that these concerns may have grounds as in several regions of tension there is evidence of reactive acquisitions – for example, it is reasonable to assume that the Moroccan order for U.S.-made F-16 combat aircraft is related to the orders and deliveries of Russian-made Su-30MK to neighboring Algeria, he added.
Fighter aircraft accounted for 27 percent of international arms transfers during 2005-2009. These include 72 F-16E fighter planes to UAE, 52 F-16I to Israel and 40 F-15K to South Korea, collectively costing billions of dollars.
Russian exports of fighter planes include 82 Su-30s to India, 28 to Algeria, and 18 to Malaysia.
“Potentially destabilizing weapons systems have led to arms race concerns in the following regions of tensions: the Middle East, North Africa, South America, South Asia and South-east Asia,” SIPRI reported.
According to the SIPRI report arms transfers for 2005-2009 was 22 percent higher than in 2000-2004. Holtom said that SIPRI data show that resource-rich states have purchased a considerable quantity of expensive combat aircraft.
“Neighboring rivals have reacted to these acquisitions with orders of their own. One can question whether this is an appropriate allocation of resources in regions with high levels of poverty,” he stressed.
According to SIPRI, the five largest arms suppliers during 2005-2009 were the United States, Russia, Germany, France and Britain accounting for more than 75 percent of all exports of major conventional weapons. The United States and Russia remained by far the largest exporters, accounting for 30 percent and 24 percent of all exports, respectively.
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