The world is in turmoil, and the global arms trade is flourishing. No country exports more military equipment than the United States. And no country buys more weapons than Saudi Arabia. These are just two of the findings in a new report released Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI, which analyzed trends over the past five years.
A comparison of 2015 to 2019 with figures for the years 2010 to 2014 shows that the international arms trade grew by more than 5% in that time, and by as much as 20% compared with 2005 to 2009. However, the growth in trade in military equipment varied greatly from region to region.
The report also showed that since 2015, 61% more weapons have been sold to the Middle East than in the preceeding five years.
In an interview with DW, SIPRI armaments expert Pieter Wezeman commented that this was "of concern, considering the many conflicts in the region and also the risk of further escalation of conflict, for example between Iran and Saudi Arabia."