Intelligence and Terrorism News

Report: US led in 2006 arms to developing countries

Oct 1, 2007, 7:54 GMT

New York - The United States led the world in 2006 in selling arms to developing countries, according to a US government report being released Monday.

The study, by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service and reported in Monday's New York Times, said that nearly 36 per cent of the weapons bought last year in developing countries were sold by the US. The value of the arms was 10.3 billion dollars.

Next were Russia with more than 28 per cent of the market, worth 8.1 billion dollars, and Britain at 3.1 billion dollars, or nearly 11 per cent.

The top three rankings were the same as in 2005.

More than 60 per cent of the global arms market, about 28.8 billion dollars, was in sales to developing countries, a decline of about 9 per cent from 2005's 31.8 billion dollars.

Titled Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, the study found that Pakistan was the number-one buyer at 5.1 billion dollars in 2006, followed by rival India at 3.5 billion dollars. Saudi Arabia was third at 3.2 billion dollars.

Combining both developed and developing countries, the global arms market in 2006 was 40.3 billion dollars, a decline of 13 per cent from 2005.