France to Become Second Largest Arms Exporters as Russia Suffers Dip in Demands: Report

France is challenging Russia’s position as the world’s second-largest arms exporter after the US, a report has said.

France has witnessed a steep increase in sales and orders of arms from Asian, Middle Eastern and Oceania countries in the last five years, The Guardian reported.

The French share of the global defence exports was at 11 percent in 2018-22, up from 7.1& in 2013-17, a rise of 44%. Moreover, India, Qatar and Egypt were the biggest clients of French weapons.

With the rate of arms supplies in the last few years, French suppliers could surpass their Russian rivals within a decade.

Meanwhile, Russian exports decreased in the last three years as the two largest importers- China and Egypt came under pressure, according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri).

Along with Russia, the UK’s share of the global market has also fallen.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year and China’s growing self-sufficiency could have resulted in the fall of its exports.

“It is likely that order volumes from these two states will reduce in the coming years,” the authors of the SIPRI report, titled Trends in International Arms Transfers, said.

“Egypt, for example, cancelled a large order for combat aircraft in 2022, probably due to pressure from the USA, and China is becoming less reliant on Russian imports as it ramps up domestic production of advanced major arms,” they said.

They further said that the low volume of deliveries suggests that arms exports are likely to continue to fall in the coming years.

“Combat aircraft and combat helicopters have been among Russia’s main arms exports since 1992. It delivered a total of 328 of these in 2018–22, which accounted for 40% of Russian arms exports in the period,” the report said.

However, by the end of 2022, Moscow had pending deliveries for only 84 combat aircraft and helicopters.

Russia’s war on Ukraine will likely put more constraints on Russia’s ability to export arms since it will prioritise the production of arms for its own military rather than export.

It has been the world’s second biggest arms exports for three decades with the supply of combat helicopters and aircraft being the backbone of its defence industry.

France has more major arms on order for export than Russia currently and in the coming years, French arms will be in the same order of magnitude as Russia.

“France has seen a steep increase in arms exports in terms of deliveries. At the same time, the French arms industry, supported by the French government, has succeeded in signing more large deals for arms exports, with deliveries planned over coming years,” Pieter Wezeman, a senior researcher at SIPRI said.

The five biggest defence exporters include the US, Russia, France, China and Germany, which account for a total of 76% of all arms exports. US, which remains at the top, exported 40 percent of the global arms exports.

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