Stockholm: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has become the third-biggest arms importer worldwide, a leading defence think tank said Monday.
The figures from the UAE reflected what the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) described as a “worrying” regional trend of increased arms imports into the Middle East.
The oil-rich country accounted for 6.0 percent of the world’s arms imports between 2004 and 2008, according to the new report from the (SIPRI) — the same proportion as South Korea.
Only China with 11 percent and India with 7.0 percent, had a larger share of the market, said the report.
The UAE’s position was all the more striking because in the previous study, covering the period 1999-2003, the UAE was only the 16th biggest importer of military equipment worldwide.
The SIPRI described the country’s rise to third place as “the most significant change” in its new survey of global arms sales.
The study also found that the average volume of worldwide arms transfers for 2004-2008 was 21 percent higher than the period 1999-2003.
There had been a 38 percent increase in arms transfers to the Middle East region in the latest study compared to its previous five-year survey, said SIPRI.
“During the past five years, we have seen the re-emergence of the Middle East as a major recipient of conventional weapons systems,” said SIPRI researcher Pieter Wezeman in a statement.
“While we are a long way from the levels reached in the early to mid-1980s, this is still a worrying trend in a region beset by multiple sources of potential conflict,” he added.
The United States remains the biggest supplier of military equipment. Its sales account for 31 percent of exports worldwide, ahead of Russia with 25 percent and by Germany with 10 percent, the report noted.
