India's Atma Nirbhar Bharat in Defence programme has brought down the level of imports by 9.3 percent in the period 2020-24 and the position by one notch to the second spot.
Relevant Extracts in the Indian Context of the SIPRI press release are as given below.
SIPRI press release indicates that Ukraine is now the world’s largest importer of major arms in the period 2020–24, with its imports increasing nearly 100 times over compared with 2015–19. This is not unexpected given that the country is fighting an intense conventional war and needs support from external actors for national survival.
The India Pakistan China Context
While India’s Atma Nirbhar Bharat has seen some progress the country remains the world’s second largest arms importer, with its imports reflecting perceived threats from both China and Pakistan. However, its imports decreased by 9.3 per cent between 2015–19 and 2020–24. The largest share of Indian arms imports (36 per cent) came from Russia, a significantly smaller share than in 2015–19 (55 per cent) and 2010–14 (72 per cent).
Arms imports by Pakistan grew by 61 per cent between 2015–19 and 2020–24. China became even more dominant as its supplier, accounting for 81 per cent of Pakistan’s arms imports in 2020–24, compared with 74 per cent in 2015–19.
Asia Oceania - Largest Arms Importing Region
While arms imports to Europe and the Middle East continue to grab media attention, Asia and Oceania remained the largest arms-importing region in the world in 2020–24, as it has been almost invariably since the early 1990s,’ said Siemon Wezeman, Senior Researcher with the SIPRI Arms Transfers Programme. ‘Threat perceptions concerning China are behind much of the arms procurement in the region.’
The share of global arms transfers going to states in Asia and Oceania fell from 41 per cent to 33 per cent between 2015–19 and 2020–24.
A 21 per cent drop in imports to the region was in large part due to arms imports by China shrinking by 64 per cent between the two periods, as it increasingly substituted imports—mainly from Russia—with locally designed and produced weapon systems. China’s arms imports are likely to keep falling as the capacity of its domestic arms industry grows.
Four states in Asia and Oceania ranked among the 10 largest arms importers globally in 2020–24: India, Pakistan, Japan and Australia. China dropped out of the top 10 arms importers for the first time since 1990–94. The main suppliers to the region in 2020–24 were the USA, which accounted for 37 per cent of regional arms imports, Russia (17 per cent) and China (14 per cent).
With the sharp drop in China’s arms imports, and marked decreases in imports by Taiwan (–27 per cent) and South Korea (–24 per cent), arms imports by East Asian states shrank by 22 per cent between 2015–19 and 2020–24. Japan (+93 per cent) was the only East Asian state that saw an increase in its arms imports.
A detailed analysis of the arms imports trends will be published subsequently.
Trends in terms of imports remains positive for India due to reduction.
Overall Trends for Europe, Middle and Oceania remain negative indicate the present and future conflict zones in the World.
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