26 April 2006(JTW) - The international arms exports in 2004 reached 19.1 billion $ in 2004. The arms market became 38 billion dollars size. Greece is the third biggest arms importer. Greece's military expenditure in 2004 rocket reaching 9 billion dollars, according to the World Bank estimations.
The world countries spent more than 1 trillion US $ on military expenditures in 2005 according to the World Bank figures.
The Western countries export the arms and mostly the Eastern countries buy the arms.
Biggest Exporters (Million $)
Russia 6,197
USA 5,453
France 2,122
Germany 1,091
UK 985
Canada 543
Ukraine 452
Biggest Importers (Million $)
India 2,400
China 2,300
Greece 1,434
UAE 1,246
S. Arabia 838
S. Korea 737
Israel 724
US 533
Singapore 456
Turkey 418
Despite of the d+®tente between Turkey and Greece, Grece continues to be militarized. In 2004 Greece spent about 2,3 billion dollars though Turkey's arms imports was only 418 million dollars. Greece was the third biggest market for the arms sales in 2004. Ihsan Bal from USAK says "The level of Greece's arms imports is not reasonable. Greece s a small country. Bulgaria, Albania and former Yugoslavia republic do don't threaten Greece. And the d+®tente in Turkey-Greece relations is clear. That's why Turkey has decreased arms import despite of the PKK terrorism, security threats from Iraq, Syria, Armenia and Iran. Turkey is surrounded by the most volatile regions in the world and decreases the arms exports while Greece continues to militarize the region".
Greece spends more than 4 percent of its GDP on the arms.
JTW
26 April 2006 |
