NEW DELHI: India continues to languish in the strategically-vulnerable position of being the world’s second-largest arms importer, just behind Saudi Arabia. The only silver lining is that India has clawed its way to the 23rd position among the top 25 weapon exporters, with Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Mauritius being its biggest clients, though it constitutes a negligible 0.2% share of the total global figure.The latest data on international arms transfers released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on Monday shows India accounted for 9.2% of the total global arms imports during 2015-2019, while Saudi Arabia registered 12%. China stood at the fifth position (4.3%), while Pakistan was at 11th (2.6%).“Between 2010-14 and 2015-19, arms imports by India and Pakistan decreased by 32% and 39%, respectively. While both countries have long-standing aims to produce their own major arms, they remain largely dependent on imports and have substantial outstanding orders and plans for imports of all types of major arms,” said the global think-tank.SIPRI, in fact, cited the example of India’s Balakot air strikes and Pakistan’s attempted counter-strike in February last year to show the overwhelming dependence of the two on foreign weapons. If India deployed French (Mirage-2000s) and Russian (Sukhoi-30MKIs and MiG-21s) fighters, along with Israeli precision-guided bombs (Spice-2000s) and Swedish artillery (Bofors), Pakistan used American (F-16s) and Chinese (JF-17s) jets, and Swedish AWACS during the military face-off.Russia remained the largest arms supplier to India in 2010-14 and 2015-19, but deliveries fell by 47% and its share of total Indian imports went down from 76% to 56%. Imports from the US, which became India’s second-largest arms supplier in 2010-14 as part of the growing strategic partnership, also fell by 51% in 2015-19. “In contrast, arms imports from Israel and France increased, by 175% and 715% respectively, making them the second and third-largest suppliers to India in 2015-19,” said SIPRI.While the US figures do not include the Rs 21,000 crore deals inked for Apache and MH-60R helicopters during President Donald Trump’s visit here last month, the huge spike in France’s contribution is primarily due to the Rs 59,000 crore deal inked for 36 Rafales in September 2016.As per SIPRI data, China accounts for 73% of its all-weather ally Pakistan’s arms imports, followed by Russia (6.6%) and Italy (6.1%). The US, which earlier supplied 30% of the arms imported by Pakistan, was down to just 4.1% in 2015-19 after it decided to stop military aid to the country.India’s embarrassing continuance at the very top in the global arms import rankings reinforces the persisting failure to build a strong defence industrial base, with the NDA government’s “Make in India” policy also yet to actually take-off in producing diesel-electric submarines, fighters, light utility helicopters, minesweepers and infantry combat vehicles for the last six years, as was earlier reported by TOI.But India’s arms exports have certainly picked up. Official Indian figures show they jumped from Rs 2,060 crore in 2015-16 to Rs 10,746 crore in 2018-19. The figure for 2019-20 stood at Rs 5,883 crore in December 31 last year. Just last week, defence minister Rajnath Singh said the government had set an arms export target of $5 billion in the next five years. This, of course, will take some doing.