US Continues to Be a Major Supplier of Weapons to Repressive Countries With a History of Human Rights Abuses

By teleSUR

30 December 16

While the global arms trade declined overall, the biggest sellers of global weapons, the United States and France, saw an increase in sales.

ith decades of imperialist meddling around the world and a culture defined by hyper-militarism, it’s no surprise the United States yet again topped the list of global weapons sales last year, signing deals worth about US$40 billion, according to a new congressional study.

The report, “Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 2008-2015,” prepared by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, found that the United States was miles ahead of the world’s second-biggest weapons dealer, France, which made sales worth US$15 billion.

The largest buyers of arms in 2015, the report found, were largely U.S. allies in the Gulf region, with Qatar buying more than US$17 billion in weapons last year, followed by Egypt, which bought almost US$12 billion in arms, and Saudi Arabia, with over US$8 billion in weapons purchases.

The global arms trade fell last year from the previous year, with countries around the world spending US$80 billion in 2015 for weapon purchases, down from the 2014 total of US$89 billion, the study found.

Still, the United States and France both increased their overseas weapons sales in 2015, with U.S. arms sales that grew around US$4 billion in 2015 and France’s that grew well over US$9 billion.

After the United States, France, Russia and China, the study found that the world’s major global arms suppliers include Sweden, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Britain, and Israel.