India world’s 2nd largest arms importer despite drop in goods: Report

INdia’s arms imports cut down 4% betwixt 2016-20 and 2021-25, but the rural area remains the domain’s indorse largest importer of military hardware, accounting for 8.2% of global weapon imports, a Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) report said on Monday.India’s arms imports are driven by its tensions with China and Pakistan, said the report on “Trends in International Arms Transfers”. “The drop in imports can be partly attributed to India’s growing ability to design and produce its own weapons, although there are often substantial delays in domestic production. However, India’s recent orders or planned orders --- including up to 140 combat aircraft from France and 6 submarines from Germany --- indicate its continued and probably increasing reliance on foreign suppliers,” it pointed out.Ukraine, which received 9.7% of all arms transfers in 2021-25, is the world’s largest arms importer.The latest data on international arms transfers shows that Russia was the top supplier of military hardware to India during 2021-25, but weapons sourced from Russia have dropped significantly over the last 15 years as India diversifies its arms suppliers and boosts self-reliance in the defence manufacturing sector.Over the past decade, India has shifted its arms relations away from Russia towards Western suppliers, especially France, Israel and the United States, said the report, which compared data over two five-year periods. “The largest share of Indian arms imports during 2021-25 came from Russia, at 40%—a significantly smaller share than in 2016-20 (51%) and almost half that in 2011-15 (70%). India is increasingly turning to Western suppliers.”India was locked in a border dispute with China in eastern Ladakh and launched Operation Sindoor against Pakistan during 2021-25, a period that saw the armed forces make a raft of emergency procurements to stay battle-ready. To be sure, India was the world’s second largest arms importer behind Ukraine during 2020-24 too, and its arms imports fell 9.3% over the previous five-year period (2015-2019).France and Israel are India’s second and third-largest suppliers of weapons and equipment, accounting for 29% and 15% of the country’s arms imports, the report said.Arms imports by Pakistan grew by 66% between 2016-2020 and 2021-2025, it adds. “China supplied 80% of Pakistan’s arms imports in 2021-25, up from 73% in 2016–20.” From air defence systems to fighter jets and missiles, Pakistan deployed a range of Chinese-origin weaponry against India during Operation Sindoor --- the four-day military confrontation between the two nuclear-armed neighbours last May following the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed.“In South Asia, the high volume of arms that India imports is largely due to the perceived threat from China and to India’s long-running conflict with the main recipient of Chinese arms exports, Pakistan. Imported weapons were used in the 2025 clash between India and Pakistan, both nuclear-armed states,” said Siemon Wezeman, senior researcher with the Sipri arms transfer programme.India has taken several measures to boost self-reliance in the defence manufacturing sector during recent years. These include imposing phased import bans on different types of weapons, systems, ammunition, and critical sub-systems and components, creating a separate budget for buying locally made military hardware, increasing foreign direct investment (FDI) from 49% to 74%, and improving ease of doing business.Also Read: A war that Pakistan invented for itselfOn February 1, India hiked its defence spending by more than 15% in the backdrop of Operation Sindoor, setting aside ₹7.85 lakh crore for the critical sector in the Union Budget for 2026-27, including a capital outlay of ₹2.19 lakh crore to boost the capabilities of the armed forces with new weapons and systems including fighter planes, transport aircraft, helicopters, warships, submarines, artillery guns, smart weapons, missiles, rockets and a variety of unmanned systems.The budget earmarked ₹1.39 lakh crore for buying military hardware from domestic sources to boost self-reliance in the defence manufacturing sector, up from ₹1.11 lakh crore in 2025-26.