Statsguru: Six charts explain India's arms import dependence

The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has brought military spending and arms purchases to the forefront. While the US has imposed sanctions on Russia, it is also threatening to impose sanctions on countries that do business with Russia. If such provisions — Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act — are imposed, it would hinder India’s ability to make further military purchases from Russia. At present, India is one of the largest military spenders in the world, after the US and China. Data from Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) shows that between 2016-20, India spent $331.8 billion on military, accounting for 2.6 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). Although China spent over three times more than India, as a proportion of its GDP, it only spent 1.7 per cent on the military (chart 1).

However, a significant proportion of India’s defence spending went towards arms imports from other nations. India has been the largest arms importer globally and spent almost double compared to China in 2017-21. Saudi Arabia was the only other country to rival India’s arms imports (chart 2). Further analysis indicates that India’s arms imports have been rising as a proportion of total imports. In 2021, the country accounted for 17.2 per cent of global arms imports — its second-highest share in 30 years. In 2013, one out of five arms imported was accounted for by India (chart 3). While the country was heavily dependent on Russia until a decade and a half ago, its share in India’s import has declined. However, US sanctions are still a worry as nearly half of India’s imports come from Russia (chart 4).

Meanwhile, as Russia’s share has been declining, the share of US, Israel and France in India’s arms imports has increased over the last 15 years (chart 5). The problematic issue, though, is India’s paltry share in the world’s exports. Despite being a high military spender, India only accounted for 0.2 per cent of the world’s arms exports. In contrast, Israel had a 2.45 per cent share and China had a 4.61 per cent share between 2017 and 2021. Ukraine’s share in world arms exports was three-times that of India during this period (chart 6).

 

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