Saudi Arabia becomes world's biggest arms importer

Saudi Arabia has passed India to become the world's biggest arms importer last year as concerns about Iran's ambitions increase tensions in the Middle East.

Saudi spending rose 54 per cent to US$6.5 billion last year, while India imported US$5.8 billion, according to data released yesterday by IHS, a leading analyst of the global arms trade. Imports will increase 52 per cent to US$9.8 billion this year, accounting for US$1 of every US$7 spent globally, IHS estimated, based on planned deliveries.

"This is definitely unprecedented," said Ben Moores, the report's author. "You're seeing political fractures across the region, and at the same time you've got oil, which allows countries to arm themselves, protect themselves and impose their will as to how they think the region should develop."

Saudi Arabia is building its arsenal amid concern about a geopolitical shift in the Middle East as the United States looks for help in fighting the Islamic State group, said David Cortright, the director of policy studies at the University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.

Negotiators are nearing a deal to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions and lift sanctions against the country, which would create new opportunities for economic development and threaten Saudi Arabia's longstanding ties with the United States.

The biggest beneficiary of the growing Middle Eastern market was the United States, with US$8.4 billion of arms shipments to the region last year, up from US$6 billion in 2013.