Sweden leading the way for increased arms exports – another report show

Monday, 19 March 2012
Swedish arms export increased significantly more than average, according to a new report by the Swedish Peace Research Institute, SIPRI. The report also shows that Syria has increased its arms purchases many times over.

Last December we wrote that Sweden was among the leaders in the supply of work arms especially to doctorial regimes. Today it has emerged that Sweden is still in the forefront of arm exports.

This could also be driven by the fact that more countries in the world increased their purchase and stockpile of weapons something described as unprecedented for the past ten years, according to SIPRI report.

During the past five years, arms exports have increased by 24 percent compared to the years. Demand is increasing, particularly in Asia, which accounted for almost half of imports. Also, Saudi Arabia stands out as a major buyer of primarily U.S. fighter planes. The greatest weapon order of 20 years was last year when it placed an order for 154 American planes of type F-15SA. But also Swedish anti-tank missile Bill is a big seller to the Kingdom.

And Swedish weapons continue to be an export success, not only in the Saudi dictatorship. The value of the Swedish arms sales rose 31 percent during the period, was much higher than average.

In terms of population, Sweden exports most weapons in the world, which is unacceptable, according to Anna Ek, president of the Swedish Peace Research.
"We regret that Sweden in this way paves the way for war and oppression. Over half of the exports go to non-democratic states, "she says.

Uprisings in the Arab world have not yet made its mark in the statistics. Although Syria has more than quadrupled its arms purchases, mainly from Russia, accounted for 72 percent of exports to Bashar al-Assad's regime, according to Pieter Wezemann, researcher at SIPRI, this could be the reason why farther back there has been armed insurrection.

"When Israel bombed suspected nuclear facilities in 2007 showed that the country could not do anything to protect itself. The regime had to fix up its air defenses, "he said.

The report shows that Syria bought some Russian fighter plane that could be used to bomb the rebel pickets. But otherwise Syrian weapons purchases are most defensive weapons systems and anti-aircraft and seaborne robots, which are difficult to use against its own people.

"By contrast, this raises the threshold for a foreign intervention, similar to the one against the Gaddafi regime in Libya a year ago, "said Wezemann.
By Scancomark.se Team

Also see:

Sweden’s arms exports hit record and the lucrative sector become Sweden main economic driver

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