Asia turns hotspots for arms sellers
Reuters, Washington
Asia has shot past the Middle East as the world's largest arms market, with India concluding $5.4 billion in deals in 2005, the most of any developing nation, a new report for the US Congress has found. Weapons orders worldwide rose sharply in 2005, according to an annual study by the Congressional Research Service -- one of the most authoritative, unclassified, reports of its kind. The total, $44.2 billion in arms deals, was the largest for any year in the period reviewed, which began in 1998. The next highest was $29.3 billion in 2003. Asia has long been the developing world's No. 2 market after the Middle East, where arms buying was fuelled by Saudi Arabian and United Arab Emirates' concerns over Iraq and Iran. The report, dated October 23 and made available this week, defines the developing world as all nations except the United States, Russia, European states, Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. In 2002 to 2005, Asia ranked higher than the Middle East, accounting for 48.4 percent of the value of all arms transfer agreements with developing nations, said the survey, titled Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 1998-2005.
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