India was the world's largest importer arms in the last five years and its overseas procurement was far greater than that of China and Pakistan a Stockholm based think tank said.
As per latest report of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), India accounted for 13% of the total global arms import between the years 2012-16 which is highest among all the countries.
The report said while China was increasingly able to substitute arms imports with indigenous products India remained dependent on weapons technology from Russia, the US Europe, Israel and South Korea.
India was the world's largest importer of major arms in 2012-16, accounting for 13 percent of the global total.
It said India increased its arms imports by 43% between 2007-11 and 2012-16 and in the last four years its global procurement was far greater than those of its regional rivals China and Pakistan. In the last five years, the report found that trade of major weapons has increased to its highest volume since the cod war triggered mainly by sudden spurt in demand from middle East Asia.
Soudi Arabia was the second largest arms importer in 2012-16, with an increase of 212% compared with 2007-11 Arms import by Qatar went up by 245%.
