Global
arms sales over the last five years reached their highest level since 1990,
with India continuing to top the charts as the world's largest defense
importer, a report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
has found.
Between
2012 and 2016, India accounted for 13 percent of global arms imports, followed
by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, China and Algeria, said SIPRI, which
tracks global arms purchases. Between 2007 and 2011, India accounted for 9.7
percent of global imports, still more than any other country, the group's data
shows.
Most Gulf Arab states are involved in armed
conflicts in Yemen, Syria or on their own territory and have tense relations
with Iran, the report noted. In 2012-16, Saudi Arabia's arms imports increased
by 212 percent compared with the previous five years, accounting for 8.2
percent of global arms imports.
India faces serious geopolitical threats from
its nuclear-armed rival Pakistan and China's rising military strength. As China
becomes more assertive across Asia and invests billions of dollars in strategic
infrastructure projects in Pakistan -- including in contested territory claimed
by India -- New Delhi has tried to deepen defense cooperation with the United
States and other countries in the region, such as Vietnam.
Despite rising threats, and a 'Make in India'
program to encourage local arms production, India's domestic defense sector is
not capable of meeting New Delhi's growing requirements, said Siemon Wezeman, a
senior researcher with SIPRI.
"They spend a lot of time and also money
trying to develop weapons in India and things just go hopelessly wrong,"
Wezeman said, adding that leaves them relying on imports.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pledged $250
billion to modernize the country's aging military equipment -- from fighter
jets to guns and submarines. The government wants to award contracts to
companies, such as Lockheed Martin Corp and Saab AB, which have promised to
build products in India. But Wezeman said red tape, a historic reliance on
state-owned companies and constant delays hinder the country's ability to
supplant imports with domestically-produced weapons.
This leaves India overwhelmingly reliant on
foreign imports, mainly from Russia, the United States and Israel. While
India's share of global weapons imports has risen, China has increasingly been
able to domestically produce weapons required by its military, SIPRI said,
leading China's share of global defense imports to fall to 4.5 percent of the
global total between 2012 and 2016 from 5.5 percent between 2007 and 2011.
Amit Cowshish, a former financial adviser for
acquisitions at India's Ministry of Defence, said India's defense sector has
traditionally been unable to meet the immediate demands of the country's armed
forces -- which are battling insurgents, patrolling contested borders and doing
joint patrols and military exercises with allies in the region.
"It's a catch-22 situation. Indian industry
was not able to meet the requirements because it didn't have a history of doing
defense," Cowshish said, adding that replacing imports with domestically
produced weapons will take time. "You can't really climb up the value
chain overnight, and the requirements are imminent."
Both Cowshish and Wezeman said the shift under
Modi to rely more on private Indian companies for defense procurement, could
lead to success. India signed an $8.7 billion contract to buy 36 Rafale jets
from Dassault Aviation SA. But both analysts also warned that structural
changes to India's defense purchasing would take a long time, given the lengthy
timelines involved in defense R&D and manufacturing, as well as the
necessity of meeting the military's pressing requirements for combat-ready
equipment.
"Since the 1950s, the Indian leadership has
continuously maintained that they want to make in India," Wezeman said.
Even "if they realign, it's not something that can be done very
fast."
Source :- NDTV
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