Ukraine Becomes World’s 4th Largest Arms Importer

(FILES) Two Dassault Rafale fighter jets take off for a mission from Fetesti Air Base, in the commune Borcea, near the town of Fetesti, Romania on October 19, 2023. (Photo by Daniel MIHAILESCU / AFP)
(FILES) Two Dassault Rafale fighter jets take off for a mission from Fetesti Air Base, in the commune Borcea, near the town of Fetesti, Romania on October 19, 2023. (Photo by Daniel MIHAILESCU / AFP)
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Ukraine Becomes World’s 4th Largest Arms Importer

(FILES) Two Dassault Rafale fighter jets take off for a mission from Fetesti Air Base, in the commune Borcea, near the town of Fetesti, Romania on October 19, 2023. (Photo by Daniel MIHAILESCU / AFP)
(FILES) Two Dassault Rafale fighter jets take off for a mission from Fetesti Air Base, in the commune Borcea, near the town of Fetesti, Romania on October 19, 2023. (Photo by Daniel MIHAILESCU / AFP)

States in Europe almost doubled their imports of major arms in the past five year, partly due to the war in Ukraine, according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

While Ukraine has become the world's fourth largest arms importer, exports from Russia halved.

France has replaced Russia as the world's second largest exporter behind the United States.

In 2019-2023, arms imports to Europe rose by 94 percent compared to the preceding five-year period, while overall global arms transfers decreased slightly, SIPRI said.

The increase is “partially explained by the war in Ukraine, and Ukraine has become the fourth largest importer of arms in the world in the last five years,” SIPRI researcher Katarina Djokic told AFP.

SIPRI prefers to analyze trends over half-decades as a few deliveries of major contracts can tilt yearly figures.

SIPRI noted that at least 30 countries had supplied major weapons as military aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022.

But other European nations also increased imports, with a larger share coming from the world's number one exporter of arms, the United States.

In the 2019-2023 period, 55 percent of imports to Europe were from the US, up from 35 percent in the 2014-2018 period.

This is partly due to most European states being NATO members and partners of the US in the development of weapon systems like the F-35 fighter jet, Djokic said.

At the same time increased imports from the US underlined many European nations' desire to quickly acquire weapons and therefore buy “off the shelf” rather than develop new systems.

Globally, US exports grew by 17 percent in the period, bringing its share of total arms exports to 42 percent.

Russia -- which long held the position as the second largest exporter -- saw its exports fall by 53 percent between 2014-2018 and 2019-2023.

Russia was not only exporting fewer weapons, it was also exporting to fewer recipients.

It only exported to 12 countries in 2023, compared to 31 in 2019.

“There are also important changes in the policies of their biggest customer, China,” Djokic said.

China was traditionally one of the biggest recipients of Russian arms but has been pushing to develop its domestic production.

China still accounted for 21 percent of Russian exports, while India was the biggest recipient with 34 percent.

While Russia's exports declined, France saw its own grow by 47 percent, thereby narrowly edging out Russia to become the world's second largest exporter.

France accounted for 11 percent of total weapons exports in 2019-2023.

In particular, Djokic noted that France had been particularly successful in selling its Rafale fighter jet outside Europe.

SIPRI researcher Zain Hussain said the war in Gaza -- which began in retaliation for Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel -- has already affected arms imports to Israel.

This is primarily through transfers of weapons from the US, either via new military aid or the speeding up already existing contracts, he said.

Hussain cautioned that the longer term impact of the conflict was harder to predict.

“We already see in certain European states a kind of push by different actors or states to limit arms to Israel during its (military) operations in Gaza due to potential violations of international humanitarian law,” Hussain said.



Homeland Insecurity: Expelled Afghans Seek Swift Return to Pakistan

Afghan refugees atop trucks piled with their belongings cross the border from Pakistan to Afghanistan at Chaman in April. Abdul BASIT / AFP/File
Afghan refugees atop trucks piled with their belongings cross the border from Pakistan to Afghanistan at Chaman in April. Abdul BASIT / AFP/File
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Homeland Insecurity: Expelled Afghans Seek Swift Return to Pakistan

Afghan refugees atop trucks piled with their belongings cross the border from Pakistan to Afghanistan at Chaman in April. Abdul BASIT / AFP/File
Afghan refugees atop trucks piled with their belongings cross the border from Pakistan to Afghanistan at Chaman in April. Abdul BASIT / AFP/File

Pakistan says it has expelled more than a million Afghans in the past two years, yet many have quickly attempted to return -- preferring to take their chances dodging the law than struggle for existence in a homeland some had never even seen before.

"Going back there would be sentencing my family to death," said Hayatullah, a 46-year-old Afghan deported via the Torkham border crossing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in early 2024.

Since April and a renewed deportation drive, some 200,000 Afghans have spilled over the two main border crossings from Pakistan, entering on trucks loaded with hastily packed belongings, reported AFP.

But they carry little hope of starting over in the impoverished country, where girls are banned from school after primary level.

Hayatullah, a pseudonym, returned to Pakistan a month after being deported, travelling around 800 kilometers (500 miles) south to the Chaman border crossing in Balochistan, because for him, life in Afghanistan "had come to a standstill".

He paid a bribe to cross the Chaman frontier, "like all the day laborers who regularly travel across the border to work on the other side".

His wife and three children -- including daughters, aged 16 and 18, who would be denied education in Afghanistan -- had managed to avoid arrest and deportation.

Relative security

Hayatullah moved the family to Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and a region mostly populated by Pashtuns -- the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan.

"Compared to Islamabad, the police here don't harass us as much," he said.

The only province governed by the opposition party of former Prime Minister Imran Khan -- who is now in prison and in open conflict with the federal government -- Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is considered a refuge of relative security for Afghans.

Samad Khan, a 38-year-old Afghan who also spoke using a pseudonym, also chose to relocate his family to Peshawar.

Born in eastern Pakistan's Lahore city, he set foot in Afghanistan for the first time on April 22 -- the day he was deported.

"We have no relatives in Afghanistan, and there's no sign of life. There's no work, no income, and the Taliban are extremely strict," he said.

At first, he tried to find work in a country where 85 percent of the population lives on less than one dollar a day, but after a few weeks he instead found a way back to Pakistan.

"I paid 50,000 rupees (around $180) to an Afghan truck driver," he said, using one of his Pakistani employees' ID cards to cross the border.

He rushed back to Lahore to bundle his belongings and wife and two children -- who had been left behind -- into a vehicle, and moved to Peshawar.

"I started a second-hand shoe business with the support of a friend. The police here don't harass us like they do in Lahore, and the overall environment is much better," he told AFP.

- 'Challenging' reintegration -

It's hard to say how many Afghans have returned, as data is scarce.

Government sources, eager to blame the country's problems on supporters Khan, claim that hundreds of thousands of Afghans are already back and settled in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa -- figures that cannot be independently verified.

Migrant rights defenders in Pakistan say they've heard of such returns, but insist the numbers are limited.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) told AFP that "some Afghans who were returned have subsequently chosen to remigrate to Pakistan".

"When individuals return to areas with limited access to basic services and livelihood opportunities, reintegration can be challenging," said Avand Azeez Agha, communications officer for the UN agency in Kabul.

They might move on again, he said, "as people seek sustainable opportunities".