Report: Europe Becomes World's Biggest Arms Importer

European countries more than trebled their arms imports in 2021-25 versus 2016-2020 to supply Ukraine in its defence against Russian invasion and to rebuild their own militaries ​after decades of under-investment.

"The sharp increase in arms flows to European ​states pushed global arms transfers up almost 10 percent," Mathew ⁠George, Director of the SIPRI Arms Transfers Programme, said.

Europe accounted for 33% ​of global arms imports, up from 12% in the previous five-year period, the ​report showed.

Despite boosting domestic production, European countries continued to increase purchases of US weapons, especially combat aircraft and long-range air-defence systems.

Arms imports by Middle Eastern states fell 13%, though ​Saudi Arabia and Qatar were among the top four individual buyers.

The decline ​mainly reflected large Saudi orders during the previous period that still needed to be integrated, ‌SIPRI ⁠senior researcher Pieter Wezeman stated.

Even before the latest US and Israeli attacks on Iran, states in the region had placed significant new orders that have yet to show up in the figures.
The current conflict is likely to lift procurement ​further, particularly of anti-missile ​and air-defence ⁠systems.

"They will first replace what they have used, but also that they are going to look at buying more equipment ​to protect themselves even better than they can do ​now," Wezeman added.

In terms of suppliers, the US increased its global share of the arms export market to 42% from 36%, cementing its dominance. France was the second-largest supplier ⁠with ​9.8% of global exports, while Russia's share dropped ​to 6.8% from 21% after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Europe's combined export share was 28% - four ​times Russia's and five times China's.