News - Middle East - Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia has maintained the first place in arms imports in the world at a time when it continues to fail to achieve any victory in its war on Yemen, and is even threatened with total defeat.

A study issued by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Sipri revealed that Saudi Arabia and India rank equally as the world's top imports with 6% each, According to the study, Egypt ranked second with a rate of 5.7%, then Australia and China (4.8%).

Europe has achieved the largest growth in the arms trade during the past five years, a trend that is expected to accelerate as a number of countries on the continent announce the strengthening of armaments in the face of the new Russian threat.

The study showed that during the period 2017-2021, the global arms trade declined by 4.6 percent from the previous five years, but increased by 19 percent in the European continent.

It is scheduled to provide the armies of European countries with warplanes, led by the modern and expensive American F-35 planes, as well as missiles, artillery and other heavy equipment.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the Asia and Oceania region has remained the number one importer during the past five years with 43% of arms shipments, and it contains six of the ten largest importers.

The Middle East is the second arms market in the world with a 32% share of global imports, an increase of 3%, driven in particular by Qatar's investments in military equipment in the face of tension with neighboring Gulf states.

The United States, which leads by a wide margin, and France, ranked third, significantly increased their shares in five years, from 32 to 39% and from about 6% to 11%, respectively.