Greece’s defense spending, getting things straight

From: Defence Greece

We have written many times for the media mainly in Europe that in recent months publish articles regarding the defense spending and the (supposedly) huge amounts Greece continues to spend amid crisis. Some of these publications are also getting republished by Greek media.

But now comes the most authoritative source, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri), which released its annual report on arms exports and imports and things are finally getting straight.

So according to these data, Greece had already fallen outside the top 20 countries in the list of the largest importers of weapons since 2009, moved to the 37th position in 2011 and is forecast to fall even lower in the future. Unlike Turkey, which remained stable among the top 20 importers and moved to No. 9 position in 2011.

The report, however, beyond the data for this region, has many other interesting information. So India is the No. 1 country importing weapons. No2 is Australia, rising steadily since 2008, from position 21, to No 9 in 2009 and position 3 in 2010.

No. 3 is another country …that was probably expected, Pakistan, moving up six positions throughout the decade of 2000.

No4 Morocco, who was in the 50th place or lower in previous years.

There are other interesting facts. The U.S. is No. 11 importer (purchases from the domestic market do not count) and the United Kingdom is in the 19th place, while France (which is rather self-sufficient in weapons) is in the 64th position.

Things get even more interesting in exporters were of course the U.S. and Russia hold the first and second position, while France is in the third position (from sixth in 2010), China in the fourth (and rising), Germany in the fifth and the United Kingdom in the sixth place. Slight decline in Israel from the 10th to the 11th position, while Italy, Spain and The Netherlands also fell from the top 10.