According to SIPRI, France now has 11 percent of the global arms market.
France is now in second place behind the U.S. | Lionel Bonaventure/AFP via Getty Images
France is now in second place behind the U.S. | Lionel Bonaventure/AFP via Getty Images
France is now in second place behind the U.S., which saw its share of global arms exports grow from 34 percent to 42 percent.
France’s surge up the rankings comes thanks to major deals for Dassault Aviation’s Rafale fighter jet with the likes of Qatar, Egypt and India.
“In the past few years India, Egypt and Indonesia all choose French combat aircraft in competitions that included Russian alternatives,” said Wezeman, adding that the country’s exports are “technically attractive” while “deliveries are often fast.”
India is the world’s largest arms importer. Thirty-three percent of its imports come from France, while 36 percent come from Russia — the first five-year period since the 1960s that Russia or the Soviet Union don’t account for more than half of the country’s purchases.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the guest of honor during last year’s Bastille Day celebration. The two countries pledged in January to build up defense industry ties after France sold 26 Rafale Marine fighter jets and 3 Scorpène-class military submarines to New Delhi last summer.
Most European countries are boosting defense spending; arms imports were 94 percent higher in 2019-2023 than 2014-2018. Ukraine was the Continent’s largest arms importer.
The SIPRI figures also highlight Europe’s increasing reliance on the U.S., with 55 percent of arms imports coming from across the Atlantic in the last five years, compared with 35 percent in the period before that.
With more NATO countries meeting the alliance’s minimum of spending 2 percent of GDP on defense, there is more money for weapons, but France isn’t well placed to take advantage of that.
While it does very well in non-European markets, less than a 10th of its exports were to buyers in Europe, and more than half of that came from the sale of 17 Rafale jets to Greece.
Source: Politico
