Media: US Remains World’s Top Arms Supplier
BEIJING, Dec.30 (Xinhuanet) — The New York Times reports that the US remains the world’s chief supplier of armaments. It sold over 36 billion US dollars worth of weaponry in 2014, and controls over 50 percent of the market.
Foreign arms sales saw a big increase on the 26 billion US dollars of revenue in 2013. This was due to major contracts with South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Russia, which currently ranks second in terms of global arms sales, earned over ten billion US dollars from arms exports in 2014.
Sweden sold 5.5 billion US dollars of arms. While France earned 4.4 billion dollars, and China 2.2 billion dollars from sales of equipment.
The world’s top weaponry buyer was South Korea, as the country has purchased nearly eight billion US dollars worth of military hardware, most of it supplied by the US. At the same time, Iraq spent more than seven billion US dollars on weapon purchases while Brazil obtained 6.5 billion US dollars worth of armaments.
new.xinhuanet.com
