Europe Significantly Increased Arms Imports in the Last Four Years

European arms imports increased by 155 percent from 2020 to 2024, with Ukraine becoming the largest arms importer following Russian aggression in 2022, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) published on Monday.

SIPRI data also indicates the continued dominance of the USA in the global market, as American companies increased their share of exported arms from 35 percent in the period from 2015 to 2019, to 43 percent in the period from 2020 to 2024. American arms exports are equivalent to the total sum of the next eight countries.

In terms of imports, 28 percent of arms during the 2020-2024 period went to Europe, while in the previous period, from 2015 to 2019, Europe accounted for only 11 percent of imports.

Looking at individual countries, 8.8 percent of arms were imported into Ukraine between 2020 and 2024, with half of that percentage consisting of arms from the USA, before American President Donald Trump suspended arms deliveries to Kyiv.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine resulted in the largest conflict between the West and Russia since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. The war in Eastern Europe has highlighted its dependence on American arms, although the transatlantic alliance, the foundation of European security architecture after World War II, is often called into question.

The USA provided more than half of European arms imports in the four-year period from 2020 to 2024, with the top three buyers being the United Kingdom, Netherlands, and Norway.

European leaders last Thursday supported a plan for increased defense spending, which followed a shift in US foreign policy at the beginning of President Trump’s second term.

– With an increasingly belligerent Russia and transatlantic relations in question, European NATO members have taken certain steps to reduce their dependence on arms imports and strengthen the European arms industry – said senior researcher at SIPRI Pieter Wezeman.

However, transatlantic ties in arms procurement have deep roots. Imports from the USA have been increasing, and European NATO members have ordered around 500 combat aircraft and many other armaments.

Russian arms exports fell to 7.8 percent of the global market between 2020 and 2024, which is nearly three times less than the 21 percent in the previous four-year period. This is a result of international sanctions due to the war in Ukraine and increased domestic demand for arms. Imports from Asia and Oceania fell by 21 percent, primarily because China now produces much more of its own weapons.