The global arms trade is booming. According to a new report by the independent Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), in the past five years, global arms deliveries have increased by almost 10% compared to the previous five-year period.
After declining by around a third after the collapse of communism and the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the arms trade is now back at roughly the same volume as in 1989.
Europe is now the most important region for arms imports,ย whereas between 2016 and 2020 it was ย Asia and Oceania (42% of all imports) and the Middle East (32%) that were the leading import regions. Europe was in third place but much further behind (12%).
Europe has now almost tripled its arms imports, ranking first in the world with 33% of the share. It is followed closely by Asia and Oceania (31%) and the Middle East (26%). “The sharp increase in arms flows to European states pushed global arms transfers up almost 10%,” says Mathew George, one of the authors of the new SIPRI study.ย
ย Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 was considered the most significant factor in the increase of European arms purchases until 2022.ย “Most other European states have also started importing significantly more arms to shore up their military capabilities against a perceived growing threat from Russia,” George said.ย ย
War in Ukraine inspires European countries to rearm
According to SIPRI, the volume of US arms deliveries to Ukraine in 2025 was considerably lower than in the previous two years.
Since his return to the White House, US President Donald Trump has reduced his country’s military aid to Kyiv. If Ukraine’s allies, whetherย EU states, Australia or Canada, purchased large quantities of heavy weapons, such as air defense missiles, from the US and made them available to Ukraine, SIPRI still counts them as US arms exports to Ukraine. Despite this, Ukraine is no longer the sole reason for the increase in imports to Europe.
Demand for weapons on the part of European NATO members has also beenย boosted by ย the perceived threat from Russia and Trump’s warnings to the European Union. According to the SIPRI report, arms imports by the 29 European NATO countries rose by 143% in the period between 2021 and 2025 compared to the period 2016 to 2021.
Poland, which shares borders with Ukraine and Belarus, is the largest arms importer among the European NATO countries, accounting for 17% of all imports for this category. This is 3.6% of total global arms imports. SIPRI reports an increase of 852% in Polish arms imports in the period 2021 to 2025 compared to 2016 to 2020.
The other major importers were the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
US expands role as global arms dealer
Despite the decrease in arms deliveries since 2025, the US remains the most important arms supplier to Ukraine and, along with South Korea, one of the most important arms suppliers to European countries. Globally, European countries likeย France, Italyย and Germany have also expanded their role as arms exporters.
Partly because of its arms supplies to Ukraine, Germany has overtaken China and become the fourth-largest arms exporter with a 5.7% share of the global market.
The US has also expanded its role as global arms dealer, accounting for 42% of all international arms deliveries between 2021 and 2025 compared to 36% between 2016 and 2020. In that period, it supplied weapons to 99 countries. “The USA has further cemented its dominance as an arms supplier, even in an increasingly multipolar world,” said Pieter Wezeman, a SIPRI researcher. He added that under Trump the US doubled down on using arms exports as an instrument of foreign policy.ย
India and Pakistan both increased their arms imports, too. The two nations share tense relations and are among the 10 largest arms importers worldwide. India also shares friction with India, while Pakistan is in conflict with Afghanistan.ย ย
Decline of arms imports in Middle East
At this point, one can only speculate about the extent to which the current conflictย in the Middle East will boost arms trade in the region.
According to the SIPRI report, arms imports by Middle Eastern states fell by 13% in the five-year period leading to 2025.
But three countries in the region were among the world’s 10 largest arms importers: Saudi Arabia (6.8% of global imports), Qatar (6.4%)ย and Kuwait (2.8%).
These figures are unlikely to decline in the coming years.
This article was originally published in German.