Global arms sales over the last five years have touched the pinnacle. India is the world’s largest defense importer, a report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has found.
India accounted for 9.7 percent of global imports between 2007 and 2011.
There was a rise of 3.3% in the defense imports by India between 2007 and 2016.
India held 13 percent of global arms imports between 2012 and 2016. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, China and Algeria followed India in the purchase.
As India’s nuclear-armed rival Pakistan and China are raising their military strength, so is India. New Delhi has tried to strengthen its defense cooperation with the United States and other countries in the region, such as Vietnam.
Siemon Wezeman, a senior researcher with SIPRI, said that despite rising threats, and ‘Make in India’ program to encourage local arms production, India’s domestic defense sector is not capable of meeting country’s growing requirements.
India is highly dependent on its friend Russia to import its defense needs. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pledged $250 billion to meet the country’s military needs and modernize the aging equipment. But Wezeman said red tape, a historic reliance on state-owned companies and constant delays hinder the country’s ability to replace imports with domestically-produced weapons.
Amit Cowshish, a former financial adviser for acquisitions at India’s Ministry of Defense, said, “It’s a catch-22 situation. As India didn’t have a past of doing defense so, India was not able to meet the requirements. Replacing imports with domestically produced weapons will take time.”
“You can’t really climb up the value chain overnight, and the requirements are imminent.” he added.
