According to a report published on Monday, the 10th of March, by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), European NATO members have become even more dependent on US arms supplies than before over the past four years, when European arms imports increased by 155%, report Politico and Reuters.
European arms imports in 2020-2024 have increased by 15% compared to 2015-2019 in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
While the US supplied 52% of European NATO members’ military equipment between 2015 and 2019, this share rose to 64% in the following five-year period. The UK, the Netherlands and Norway are among the biggest buyers, according to SIPRI.
Europeans are taking action to boost their industry, said SIPRI senior researcher Pieter Wezeman,
“BUT THE TRANSATLANTIC ARMS SUPPLY RELATIONSHIP IS DEEPLY ROOTED. IMPORTS FROM THE US HAVE INCREASED, AND THE EUROPEAN NATO COUNTRIES HAVE ORDERED NEARLY 500 FIGHTER JETS AND MANY OTHER WEAPONS FROM THE US.”
The report comes at a time when European countries are massively arming themselves, with the US presidential administration aligning itself with Russia and America’s decades-long security guarantees for Europe are no longer guaranteed. This is why there have been calls in European countries to reduce dependence on US weapons, for example German economists recently warned against buying American F-35 fighter jets.
According to the SIPRI report, other major arms sellers to European NATO countries are France, South Korea, Germany and Israel.
SIPRI noted that Europe as a whole accounted for 28% of global arms imports in 2020-2024, up from 11% in 2015-2019.
Between 2020 and 2024, Ukraine alone accounted for 8.8% of global arms imports, with the bulk coming from Germany, Poland and the US, which under President Donald Trump has suspended military aid to Kiyv.
The biggest arms importers in the world in 2020-2024, apart from Ukraine, were India, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, while the biggest arms exporters were the US, France, Russia, China and Germany.
Russian arms exports fell to 7.8% compared to 21% in the previous four-year period, due to international sanctions over the war in Ukraine and the growing domestic demand for arms.
Overall, global arms supplies in the 2020-2024 period were roughly at the same level as in the previous four years, according to SIPRI data.