The mediate East was in the last 5 years the world's 3rd region in terms of arms imports. It inactive remains an crucial client of arms companies, although it was pushed in the ranking below by... Europe. The Stockholm global Institute for Peace Studies (SIPRI) presented an analysis of the latest trends in arms transfers in the mediate East and North Africa. Who in the region will arm themselves? From whom do the arabian countries buy the most and which supplier fell almost to the end of the list?
The mediate East inactive buys quite a few weapons from another countries, but late it was overtaken by Europe and jumped to second place in the arms import ranking, according to the analysis of the Stockholm global Institute for Peace Studies (SIPRI). Between 2020 and 2024 arms transfers to the Old Continent increased by as much as 155% compared to the erstwhile 5 years. This is, of course, the consequence of a full-scale war in Ukraine. Its primacy in the ranking was maintained by Asia and Evaluation, where India, Pakistan, Japan and Australia brought the most weapons.
Despite a simplification in supplies to the mediate East by as much as 20% compared to 2015-2019, the countries of the region stay among the major global arms importers. Regional armed conflicts, political-military tensions are affected between countries and underdeveloped defence industries in most countries. It is worth remembering that regional statistic inducing purchases of wealthy arabian monarchies from the Gulf Cooperation Council – Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the United arabian Emirates, whose wealth is mostly based on exports of oil and natural gas. That was the case in the last 5 years until 20% of global arms imports. It is so no wonder that as many as 3 of these countries were in the top 10 of the world's largest importers.
In 3rd place a tiny Qatar was placed, with about 3 million inhabitants, of whom only a twelve percent have citizenship. Qatar has taken up 23% of arms supplies to the region and 6.8% globally during this period. The Emirates brought 127% more weapons than in 2015–2019. Why is he arming himself? surely a key reason There are cool relations with neighbors – Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which, years ago, accused the Qatari authorities, like Egypt, of supporting terrorism. It was about supporting the Muslim Brotherhood by Doha, by any arabian states considered to be an extremist organization. In the harshest phase of the political crisis between 2017 and 2021 The Saudis even closed the border with Qatar.
Saudi Arabia had akin shares in the mediate East and Global Arms Importation. However, in her case, there was a 41% decrease compared to 2015–2019. According to SIPRI experts, the simplification in arms supply should not be combined with any policy or economical and financial problems. In their opinion, the reason is prosaic: Saudi Arabia has late obtained comparatively large amounts of modern weapons, so it temporarily halted imports.
Kuwait was the 3rd state from above the Persian Gulf among the 10 largest arms importers. In his case, arms transfers increased by 466% compared to the 2015–2019 period. Why the giant jump? The uncertain safety situation in the region is of course important, but the main reason here is the major programme of method modernisation of the Kuwaiti armed forces. The old generation's weapons systems are massively replaced. Cumulation is related to the fact that in the 1990s Kuwait had to buy almost all fresh weapons, as most of the arsenal lost during the Iraqi invasion in the summertime of 1990.
The 4th associate of the Gulf Cooperation Council, the United arabian Emirates, ranked 11th among the largest arms importers from 2020 to 2024. In this case, however, as in Saudi Arabia, there was a 19% decrease compared to 2015–2019. Experts believe that this was most likely due to the withdrawal of this country from the Yemeni war. But it should besides be taken into account that the UAE has among the members of the RPP the most developed defence industry, whose production capacity is expanding thanks to cooperation with abroad partners and investments in R & D.
The last and at the same time the smallest monarchy from the Persian Gulf, Bahrain, due to the value of arms transfers, took only 23rd place on the list of global importers, but these transfers increased by 898% compared to 2015–2019. Regional tensions, mainly with Iran, are the reason for the alignment. The country besides has interior problems related to cultural and spiritual issues, including Sunni and Shiite Islamists.
In addition to the Persian Gulf monarchies, the mediate East represents Egypt and Israel among the world's largest arms importers. In the first of these countries, arms transfers from 2020 to 2024 were 44% lower than in the erstwhile five-year-old. A tiny drop, about 2%, was recorded by Israel. For both countries, especially Israel, part of the arms supply is American military aid.
Weapons from the United States dominate mediate East transfers. Between 2020 and 2020, 33% of its global U.S. supplies were there and accounted for about half of regional transfers. More than 24% of U.S. arms exports to the mediate East were delivered to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait. arabian states have besides acquired quite a few weapons from Western Europe. France, Germany and Italy accounted for about 30% of regional transfers.
On the another hand, they fell drastically into the transportation region from Russia. With respect to North Africa, which by SIPRI experts for geographical, historical and military reasons is treated as 1 region with the mediate East, this decline was as much as 83%. Moscow's difficulty in uncovering buyers of its weapons in the region was not only due to the fact that the Russian armory had to first meet the needs of its own army, which suffered dense losses in Ukraine. The experience of war activities there is not a good ad for Russian weapons, which, according to Kremlin, was expected to be the best in the world. An crucial reason for not buying it is besides the concerns of the arabian state authorities about US sanctions. This was expected to affect Egypt's decision to abandon Russian fighters. However, even before sanctions were imposed, most mediate east countries, especially the wealthy ones, purchased Russian weapons occasionally.
The problem with the Russians is that they have not quite a few equipment that, in terms of tactical and method and qualitative parameters, would meet the expectations of customers with quite a few money for reinforcement. These were and are most curious in highly advanced weapon systems, specified as combat aircraft, frigates and rocket weapons, including ballistic missiles.
In addition, the authorities of the mediate East treat arms transactions as part of wider political-military cooperation, which aims to strengthen their safety in the face of regional threats. Therefore, Russia, which has a very close relation with Shiite Iran, is not an attractive partner for countries ruled by Sunni. Despite extended economical cooperation with China, most countries in the region proceed to focus on the United States and Western Europe in the field of security. This is confirmed by the directions of arms imports, which, although they may somewhat change in percentages, have been unchanged in individual countries for decades.
