STOCKHOLM, 13 March. - (ANA) - Global arms flows are surging to Cold War levels, fuelled by European rearmament and the war in Ukraine. 

 

Ukraine, Poland, and the Czech Republic are reshaping Europe’s defence landscape, while a Czechoslovak Group’s record-breaking IPO exposes links between business and politics. 

 

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia eyes Ukrainian weapons amid drone threats, highlighting a defence boom that is both highly profitable and increasingly entangled with geopolitics.

 

The surge can be attributed to the eruption of the largest war in Europe since World War II, when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, according to data released by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

 

Ukraine’s weapons imports increased more than 120-fold in response, and now represent nearly 10 percent of global imports, compared with just 0.1 percent in the five years prior.

 

The 29 current European Nato member states saw their combined arms imports grow by nearly two-and-a-half times over the previous five-year period.

 

The United States remained by far the world’s largest arms supplier, with exports rising 27 percent over the same period, giving it a 42 percent share of total global arms exports.

 

For the first time in two decades, Europe received the largest share of US arms exports, nearly 40 percent.   - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/13 March 2026 - - -