Kazakhstan is the only country in Central Asia and the Caucasus to rank among the Top 40 arms importers over the past five years, according to arecent study published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Over the same period, Russia has seen its position as a global arms supplier erode severely.
Astana’s purchases accounted for just under 1 percent of total global arms imports during the 2020-2024 period, good for 26th place in the Top 40, according to the SIPRI update. Russia was Kazakhstan’s dominant arms supplier, accounting for 88 percent of Kazakh purchases. The country’s worldwide share of imports during the just-completed, five-year period was slightly lower than during 2015-2019.
Despite being at war with each other for much of the most recent five-year period, Armenia and Azerbaijan did not crack the Top 40 list of arms importers. Even so, Yerevan received considerable military supplies from Russia andIndia, while Azerbaijan obtained arms fromTurkey,Pakistan,Israel and Russia.
Arms procurement by both Armenia and Azerbaijan are set to rise in 2025. Baku approved a $4.9-billion defense budget for 2025, a record high level of military spending. In 2020, the Azerbaijani military budget was$2.2 billion. Armenia is trying to keep pace: Yerevan setdefense spending in 2025 at $1.7 billion, a 20 percent increase over the previous year’s budget. In 2020, Armenia’s defense budget was $634 million.
Not surprisingly given its own struggles to maintain its war effort in Ukraine, Russia’s profile as an arms dealer is greatly diminished now, compared to five years ago. Foreign sales of Russian arms plummeted by 64 percent during 2020-24, compared to the previous five-year timespan. Moscow’s global share of the arms trade now stands at 7.8 percent, down from 21 percent during the 2015-2019 period.
“The decline in Russia’s arms exports started before its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022,” the SIPRI report notes. “In 2020 and 2021, export volumes were much smaller (ranging from 22 to 73 per cent lower) than in any year of the preceding two decades (i.e. 2000–19).”
The United States remains the world’s leading purveyor of arms, commanding a 43 percent market share over the past five years. Ukraine was the leading arms importer.