Arms Industry | China – Spain exploits arms sales to Australia, South Korea and Singapore amid escalating tensions with El Salto

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (CIPRI), a leading source of data on global arms transactions, points out in its report for 2016-2020 that Spain’s arms industry continues to be a major player in arms exports.

With 3.2% of global sales, the Spanish government is behind the major armed forces, the United States and Russia, as well as France, Germany, China and the United Kingdom. It is the seventh largest exporter globally, despite a 8.4% decline in Spanish exports compared to the previous four years from 2011 to 2016.

Australia has been a major buyer of “Spanish” weapons in recent times. The country of antibodies has purchased two strategic project ships, three Hobart-class destroyers and two warships for the war in Australia. The pace of restructuring by the Scott Morrison government is a map of the 28% increase in military spending over the next five years and regional tensions with China. Since 2017, Australia has imported nearly 500 1,500 million worth of Spanish weapons, according to SIPRI, although it does not reflect the financial value of SIPRI agreements, but rather estimates the volume of exports and imports. Own meter, For DIV ( Trend-indicator value).

Of the same coordinates, Singapore was the second largest arms importer during 2016-2020, with a value of $ 588 million. South Korea is another customer of Spain’s military-industrial complex. DIV estimates that it has imported nearly $ 400 million in four years.

Tikka Font, a researcher at the Dallas Center for Military Expenditure, explained his fears about escalating tensions in the Pacific in an interview with El Salto in the summer of 2020: “There is one element that particularly worries me. World domination is currently controversial. In terms of wealth, China is already more than the United States. The point is, China is not violating the United States militarily, but the United States must stop the Chinese economy. What do we notice? All countries around China have seen the largest increase in defense and arms spending. South Korea, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, Vietnam … they are restructuring and greatly increasing their defense budgets. So, the conflict is moving a lot towards Asia. The Middle East is very unstable and I fear the time has come to destabilize Asia. ”

Between 2019 and 2020, the Aussie government imported 2,843 million worldwide. However, this does not make you the first buyer in the world. China, India, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have spent a good portion of their budgets on arms purchases.

Spain consolidates itself as a selling country: transfers are 4,506 million, while arms imports are less than 100 million.

Turkey, which is in the process of fully expanding into the Kurdish territory of Rojava and cracking down on civil strife that began the war in Syria, is marking the tenth anniversary of these days, another of Marca Espana’s best buyers of weapons in the last years of the last decade. According to Cipri, Spain has authorized the sale of 146 million weapons each in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Between 2017 and 2018, Spain authorized the sale of 85 million euros in arms to Saudi Arabia, a country embroiled in conflict in Yemen.

According to the Swedish company, LDespite landslides between different countries, he transferred large arms internationally between 2011–15 and 2016–20. Westerners, the United States, Germany and France increased their trade volume, while China and Russia halted exports. Despite Panorama’s mild easing, they point out from Cypri that “international arms transfers are close to the highest level since the end of the Cold War.”