STOCKHOLM (dpa-AFX) – Europe is arming itself like it hasn’t in a long time. Germany benefits from this Defense industry: According to a new report from the Stockholm peace research institute Sipri, Germany is now the fourth largest arms exporter in the world – and has overtaken China. Almost a quarter of German exports went to supporting Ukraine between 2021 and 2025.
According to the report, another 17 percent were exported to other European countries. “Deliveries to other traditional export destinations such as Egypt and Israel have also increased,” said Sipri expert Katarina Djokic.
European countries are massively arming themselves
According to the peace researchers, global arms deliveries rose by 9.2 percent in a comparison of the past two five-year periods. The Sipri data refers to the volume of arms shipments, not their financial value. Since this volume can fluctuate greatly from year to year depending on the order situation and the peace researchers are concerned with long-term trends in their reports, they compare five-year periods instead of individual years, this time the years 2021 to 2025 with 2016 to 2020.
European countries tripled their arms imports during this time. The biggest driver of this development continues to be the war in Ukraine. The Russian threat is also causing European countries to strengthen their own armament capabilities. “Russia is solely responsible for the sharp increase in European arms imports,” said Djokic.
According to Sipri researchers, the uncertainty about the extent to which the USA would defend its NATO partners in an emergency has also driven up the demand for weapons among European NATO states.
Most of US arms exports went to Europe
At the same time, Europe continues to buy primarily from the USA: “For the first time in two decades, the largest share of US arms exports went to Europe and not to the Middle East,” says the report. The proportion was 38 percent.
“Although European companies have ramped up their arms production and the EU’s new investment aid for the member states’ defense industries have led to a number of orders within the EU, European states continued to import US weapons in the period 2021 to 2025,” said Sipri researcher Djokic. This is particularly true for combat aircraft and long-range air defense systems. These would continue to be perceived as particularly capable in Europe.
Countries like Romania and Poland also bought from the USA to strengthen their partnership with the Americans. “If you already have systems from the USA – like Germany, for example, the Patriot air defense system – then logistically and in terms of training there is a lot to be said for continuing to use them,” she explained.
Demand is likely to continue to grow – also because of the Iran war
The tensions and war in the Middle East are likely to cause demand for armaments in Europe to continue to grow in the future. At the same time, the US attacks in Iran could have other consequences, according to the Sipri expert: “If there are shortages of defensive missiles in the US, as has already been reported, this could lead to the country prioritizing its own armed forces and restricting deliveries to other countries.”
This could become a problem for European countries. In the period from 2021 to 2025, the USA accounted for 42 percent of all international arms deliveries and exported armaments to 99 countries. The second and third largest arms exporters in the period examined were France and Russia. Russian exports fell by 64 percent.
Against the backdrop of the Russian war of aggression, Ukraine remains at the top of the list of importers, followed by India, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Pakistan.
Sipri is an independent peace research institute based in Stockholm. It is largely state-funded and publishes reports every year on the arms trade, the arms industry, nuclear weapons and military spending./wbj/DP/zb
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