Ukraine Becomes World’s Largest Importer

Afghan Voice Agency (AVA) - International Service: According to a study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), US arms exports have increased significantly to 43 percent of the global total, following an increase in arms imports from Ukraine as a result of the war with Russia.

 

According to the Washington Post, a study by SIPRI shows that US arms exports increased by more than a fifth between 2020 and 2024 compared to the previous five-year period, reaching 43 percent of the global total.

 

According to SIPRI estimates, the United States’ share of global arms exports has averaged 35 percent over the past two decades, making the recent surge a rare and unusual occurrence.

 

“The United States is in a unique position when it comes to arms exports,” said Matthew George, director of SIPRI’s arms transfers program. “The United States’ share of 43 percent of global arms exports is more than four times that of France, the world’s second-largest arms exporter.”

 

According to the Washington Post, SIPRI also identified Ukraine as the world’s largest arms importer in its report between 2020 and 2024, with Ukraine’s arms imports increasing by about 100 times between 2020 and 2024 compared to the previous five-year period, 2015 and 2019.

 

The SIPRI think tank continued its study by revealing that European countries have also increased their arms imports in the same five-year period compared to the previous five years, citing Russophobia and pressure from the United States to rearm.

 

The findings come after Donald Trump, since the start of his second administration, has increased his pressure on Ukraine to end its war with Russia, which began three years ago.

 

Trump has repeatedly pressured Ukraine to repay the aid it received from the United States during the war with Russia, mainly in the form of military equipment, and to this end has offered Kiev a deal to grant the United States the right to exploit Ukraine's rare mineral resources.

 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, however, has opposed Trump's pressure to repay the aid, arguing that of the total $174 billion in aid allocated by the United States by Congress in response to the war in Ukraine, the money has actually gone into the US defense industry.

 

According to the Washington Post, Trump is also urging countries to buy their weapons from the United States. As the White House under Donald Trump has expressed doubts about his country’s participation in the NATO alliance, Bloomberg News reported last month that US officials have asked European allies to buy weapons from the United States to strengthen the alliance.

 

“Trump was a strong advocate for US arms sales during his first term,” said William D. Hartung, an arms trade expert who was not involved in the SIPRI study.

 

Trump has continued to support the interests of arms contractors even as the controversy over the killing of Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul has increased pressure to halt arms sales to Riyadh, he added, according to ISNA.

 

The study also noted that US military aid to Ukraine during the war with Russia has boosted arms exports and the market for US arms manufacturers.

 

The United States provided most of the arms aid it sent to Ukraine through a mechanism known as the Presidential Arms Withdrawal Authority. Under this mechanism, the United States either withdrew military equipment and weapons intended for aid to Ukraine from its own stockpiles or used credits to purchase weapons directly from American manufacturers under another program.

 

In the study, the weapons that the United States withdrew from its stockpiles were also counted as exports.

 

Meanwhile, the Europeans have also used weapons withdrawn from their stockpiles to send aid to Ukraine, and their efforts to make up for the arms deficit have increased their demand for American weapons.

 

The impact of the Gaza war on the global arms trade is less clear in SIPRI’s data, which mainly prioritizes arms deliveries over arms declarations, according to the report. “There is usually a lag between the declarations of arms and the actual delivery of the aid,” said Matthew George, director of SIPRI’s arms transfers program.

 

He added that if the value of US arms exports to the occupied Palestinian territories and Ukraine were excluded from SIPRI data, the US share of total global arms exports would still reach 37% in the period 2020-2024, and it would still be the world's largest arms exporter.

 

According to SIPRI data, Russian arms exports have fallen sharply in the past five years, falling 64% from the previous five years.

 

Although the outbreak of the Ukraine war in 2022 led to widespread Western diplomatic and economic sanctions against Russia, it seems that a historic decline in the volume of Russian arms exports in 2020 and 2021 is also expected.