SIPRI Report: Pakistan imports 80% of its arms from China, making it the world’s 5th largest importer. 61% of China’s total arms exports go to Pakistan alone. India is the second largest importer due to tension.
New Delhi: Pakistan has now become largely dependent on China for its military equipment. A new report by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) shows that about 80% of Pakistan’s total arms imports come from Beijing.
Pakistan at number 5 in arms import
According to the report, Pakistan was the world’s fifth largest arms importer between 2021-25. Whereas during 2016-20 he was at tenth position. During this period, its arms imports increased by 66%, which is 4.2% of the world’s total arms imports.
Islamabad trusts only on Chinese goods
China has always been Pakistan’s main arms supplier. Of all the weapons purchased by Pakistan in 2021-25, 80% were supplied by China. This figure was 73% in 2016-20. SIPRI said that during this period, China sold arms to 47 countries, but 61% of its total exports went to only one country – Pakistan.
situation of india
India is also mentioned in this report. During this period, India was the second largest arms importer in the world. India bought 8.2% of the world’s total imports.
The SIPRI report says, “Due to tensions with China and Pakistan, India has to import large quantities of weapons. This tension often leads to conflict, as happened between India and Pakistan in May 2025. In that conflict, both sides used weapons imported from abroad.”
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However, the report also shows that India’s total arms imports have declined slightly in the last decade. One reason for this is that India’s ability to design and manufacture weapons within the country is increasing. “India’s arms imports declined by 4.0% between 2016-20 and 2021-25. This can be attributed to the increase in India’s own arms design and production capacity. However, domestic production is often significantly delayed,” the report said.
According to SIPRI report, India is still dependent on foreign suppliers for some important systems. “Recent orders or plans to purchase 140 fighter aircraft from France and six submarines from Germany indicate that India’s dependence on foreign suppliers may increase further,” the report said.
In the last decade, India has distanced itself from Russia and increased purchasing arms from Western countries like France, Israel and America. “Russia’s share in Indian arms imports was 70% in 2011-15, which declined to 51% in 2016-20 and further to 40% in 2021-25,” the report said.
Simon Wageman, senior researcher at SIPRI’s Arms Transfers Programme, said concerns about China’s growing military power are impacting Asian countries’ defense budgets and arms purchasing decisions.
“Fears about China’s intentions and its growing military power are impacting arms procurement efforts in other parts of Asia, which are still dependent on imported arms,” Wageman said. For example, the large amount of arms India imports into South Asia is largely due to the threat it perceives from China and India’s long-standing conflict with Pakistan, a major customer of China’s arms. Imported weapons could be used in a 2025 conflict between India and Pakistan, two nuclear powers. Was done.”
Looking at the worldwide data, the top five arms importer countries in 2021-25 were Ukraine, India, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Pakistan. These countries together bought 35% of the total imports. During this period, America was the world’s largest arms exporter, selling 42% of the world’s total exports. France came second with 9.8% share and Russia came third with 6.8%. The report said that Russia’s share of global arms exports declined to 6.8% in 2021-25 from 21% in 2016-20. The main reason for this is the decline in exports to countries like Algeria, China and Egypt.
The analysis also notes that due to the Ukraine war and heightened security concerns across the region, Europe has become the largest contributor to global arms imports for the first time since the 1960s. Europe accounted for 33% of total world arms imports, followed by Asia and Oceania (31%) and West Asia (26%).