The Asianist

Asia Times Online reports:

Arms merchants from industrialized nations are increasingly finding Asia, which has replaced the Near East as the world's top conventional-weapons market, the place to go, according to a new report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).

Led by purchases by China and India, the world's most populous region accounted for nearly 50% of the total value of all new arms-transfer agreements with developing nations from 2001 through 2004, according to the report. India led the rankings in 2004 by signing US$5.7 billion in new arms deals that year, according to the report, the latest in an annual series.

It also found the United States and Russia continue to dominate all other arms suppliers by a significant margin in selling to developing countries.

This is not surprising given that, to some extent, increased military expenditure goes hand-in-hand with economic development and prowess.

Whereas oil-rich Middle Eastern states bought large quantities of weapons in the oil-boom years, industrial, technological and economic might of Asian countries like China and India are outpacing an essentially natural resource-based economy of the Middle East.

An additional interesting item to note is Russia re-emergence in the business:

Grimmett noted in his report that Russia has made "important efforts, in recent years, to provide more flexible and creative financing and payment options for prospective arms clients", including licensed production agreements that have paid off with both China and India that "should provide it with sustained business during this decade".

Aside from those two countries, the report found that Moscow appears focused on Southeast Asia, where it has had "some success in securing arms agreements with Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia".

Russian weapons are here to stay!