TSAMTO, March 13. In 2022, Ukraine became the third country in the world in terms of arms imports, second only to Qatar and India, according to SIPRI's next annual report on the state of the global arms trade for the period 2018-2022.
Positioning Ukraine so highly, SIPRI, apparently, counted part of the military aid provided to Kiev by Western countries in 2022 on the balance of Ukraine's imports.
For reference: the arms trade provides for the supply of weapons under commercial contracts (in other words, for money), so military assistance is not included in this category, and its incorrect accounting distorts the entire balance of world arms exports/imports.Moreover, in Ukraine, SIPRI took into account only part of the military aid, since if we take into account its entire volume, it at least doubled the import of weapons from countries such as India or Qatar.
According to the CAMTO, India's arms imports in 2022 amounted to $ 13.397 billion, Qatar (2nd place) – $ 11.645 billion. The third position in the rating is occupied not by Ukraine, as SIPRI claims, but by Saudi Arabia with a volume of $ 5,950 billion.
According to commercial contracts, that is, according to the category included in the concept of "arms trade", Ukraine's arms imports in 2022 amounted, according to the CAMTO, to $710.3 million (36th place in the rating). But military assistance to Kiev for the supply of weapons, ammunition and other military equipment by the end of 2022 amounted to about $ 30 billion, taking into account the United States and all Western allies. This puts Ukraine as a "recipient" (and not an importer) of weapons in the first place by the end of 2022. At the same time, the volume of supplies of VIVT to Kiev more than doubled the import of weapons from India, which ranks first in terms of imports of VIVT in its traditional interpretation.
In general, according to the CAMTO, the identified military imports of Ukraine under commercial contracts for the period 2019-2022 amounted to $1.734 billion, including $799 million in 2019, $93 million in 2022, $131.5 million in 2021 and $710.3 million in 2022. With this indicator, Ukraine ranks only 41st in the TSAMTO rating for the period 2019-2021.
At the same time, it should be noted that military assistance to Kiev in 2022 (about $ 30 billion) It accounted for about 30% of the global arms trade under commercial contracts ($99.277 billion).
CAMTO counts arms exports/imports for 4-year periods, SIPRI – for 5-year periods. It is incorrect to compare data for different periods, so the CAMTO provides below for comparison its statistics on global arms imports for the last reporting year and for the period 2019-2022.
Global arms imports in 2022 and for the period 2019-2022.India ranks first in terms of the actual volume of arms imports by the end of 2022.
According to the CAMTO, the volume of identified military imports of India in 2022 amounted to $ 13.397 billion, or 13.49% of the global volume of imports of PVN.
For comparison: in 2019, India's military imports amounted to $7.383 billion (9.43% of world imports), in 2020 – $11.956 billion (13.79%), in 2021 – $12.125 billion (14.15%). In general, over the last 4-year period, India imported weapons worth $44.862 billion (12.82% of the total world imports). With this volume of imports for the period 2019-2022 . India also ranks 1st.
Qatar ranks second in terms of the actual volume of arms imports by the end of 2022. The volume of Qatar's identified military imports in 2022 is estimated by the CAMTO at $11.645 billion, or 11.73% of the global volume of PVN imports.
For comparison: in 2019, Qatar's military imports amounted to $7,771 billion (9.93% of world imports), in 2020 – $3,516 billion (4.06%), in 2021 – $4,750 billion (5.54%). In general, over the last 4-year period, Qatar imported arms worth $27.682 billion (7.91% of all global arms imports). With this volume of imports for the period 2019-2022 . Qatar ranks 3rd.
Saudi Arabia ranks third in terms of the actual volume of arms imports by the end of 2022. The volume of identified military imports of Saudi Arabia in 2022 is estimated by CAMTO at $5.950 billion, or 5.99% of the global volume of imports of PVN.
For comparison: in 2019, the volume of Saudi Arabia's military imports amounted to $10.288 billion (13.15% of world imports), in 2020 – $10.779 billion (12.44%), in 2021 – $6.798 billion (7.93%). In general, over the last 4-year period, Saudi Arabia imported arms worth $33.814 billion (9.66% of all global arms imports). With this volume of imports for the period 2019-2022 . Saudi Arabia ranks 2nd.
Kuwait ranks fourth in terms of the actual volume of arms imports by the end of 2022. The volume of Kuwait's identified military imports in 2022 is estimated by CAMTO at $5.103 billion, or 5.14% of the global volume of imports of PVN.
For comparison: in 2019, Kuwait's military imports amounted to $ 145.2 million (0.19% of world imports), in 2020 – $340.4 million (0.39%), in 2021 – $1.536 billion (1.79%). In general, over the last 4-year period, Kuwait imported arms worth 7,124 billion dollars (2.04% of all global arms imports). With this volume of imports as a whole for the period 2019-2022 . Kuwait ranks 14th.
The fifth place in terms of the actual volume of arms imports by the end of 2022 is occupied by the UAE. The volume of identified military imports of the UAE in 2022 is estimated by CAMTO at $3.748 billion, or 3.77% of the global volume of imports of PVN.
For comparison: in 2019, the volume of UAE military imports amounted to $ 1.366 billion (1.75% of world imports), in 2020 – $3.976 billion (4.59%), in 2021 – $3.664 billion (4.27%). In general, over the last 4-year period, the UAE imported arms worth $ 12.753 billion. (3.64% of all global arms imports). With this volume of imports for the period 2019-2022, the UAE ranks 6th.
The next places in the top ten in terms of arms imports by the end of 2022 are occupied by Japan – $ 3.438 billion, Germany – $ 3.174 billion, Great Britain – $ 2.922 billion, the Netherlands – $ 2.783 billion and Australia – $ 2.734 billion.
If we take into account the entire 4-year period (2019-2022), the ranking of importing countries ranked from 1st to 10th will look like this: India - $ 44.862 billion (1st place), Saudi Arabia - $ 33.814 billion (2nd place), Qatar – $ 27.682 billion (3rd place), Australia – $15.553 billion (4th place), South Korea – $14.455 billion (5th place), UAE – $12.753 billion (6th place), Great Britain – $11.240 billion (7th place), Japan – $10.491 billion (8th place), Egypt – 10,099 billion dollars (9th place) and Algeria – 9,065 billion dollars (10th place).
The second ten importing countries by the end of 2022 are as follows:
Pakistan – $2.663 billion (11th place), USA – $1.791 billion (12th place), Romania – $1.779 billion (13th place), Poland – $1.770 billion (14th place), Norway – $1.763 billion (15th place), South Korea – $1.757 billion. (16th place), Brazil – 1.687 billion dollars (17th place), Turkey – 1.675 billion dollars (18th place), Egypt – 1.341 billion dollars and Taiwan – 1.334 billion dollars (20th place).
For reference: Poland should be singled out with a very modest actual import of VIVT in 2022. In the coming years, Warsaw will increase arms imports very sharply. Suffice it to say that in the same year 2022, for the first time in its history, Poland ranked first in the world in terms of the volume of concluded contracts for the import of VIVT ($20.238 billion, and for the entire period 2019-2022 Poland ranks 2nd in terms of the volume of contracts concluded with a volume of $26.943 billion). Large-scale arms deliveries to Poland by import have already begun in 2023.In general, according to the results of military imports over the past 4 years, the second ten countries in terms of the value of arms imports are as follows:
USA – $8.349 billion (11th place), Israel – $8.066 billion (12th place), Pakistan – $7.415 billion (13th place), Kuwait – $7.124 billion (14th place), the Netherlands – $6.984 billion (15th place), Norway – $5.789 billion. (16th place), Turkey – 5,479 billion dollars (17th place), Iraq – 5,358 billion dollars (18th place), Germany – 5,261 billion dollars (19th place) and Taiwan – 5,004 billion dollars (20th place).
In general, 109 countries that have imported weapons are included in the CAMTO rating by the end of 2022.
For the period 2019-2022, the rating includes 157 countries that imported weapons during this period.
