♦ According to a new report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), India remained the world’s second-largest importer of major arms between 2021 and 2025, accounting for 8.2 percent of global arms imports. 

♦ Indian arms imports fell by 4.0 percent between 2016-20 and 2021-25. The decrease 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.

♦ Ukraine emerged as the only nation to import more than India, receiving 9.7% of all global arms transfers and taking the top spot. 

♦ Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Pakistan rounded out the world’s top five importers, capturing 6.8%, 6.4%, and 4.2% of the global share, respectively.

♦ The data also highlights a continuous, systematic shift in India’s defence procurement strategy toward Western suppliers over the past decade. While Russia remains India’s largest single arms supplier, its share of Indian arms imports dropped to 40% in 2021–25. This marks a sharp decline from 51% in 2016-2020 and 70% in 2011-2015. France has firmly positioned itself as India’s second-largest supplier, providing 29% of the country’s imports, followed by Israel at 15%. 

♦ The United States remained the world’s largest arms exporter with a 42 percent share of global exports during the period. France ranked second with a 9.8 percent share, while Russia was third with 6.8 percent. Russia’s share of global arms exports fell sharply from 21 percent in 2016–20 to 6.8 percent in 2021–25, mainly due to declining exports to countries such as Algeria, China and Egypt.

♦ The report also found that Europe accounted for the largest share of global arms imports for the first time since the 1960s, largely driven by the war in Ukraine and rising security concerns in the region.

♦ Europe accounted for 33 percent of global arms imports, followed by Asia and Oceania at 31 percent and West Asia at 26 percent.