Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony, right, visiting the Defense Research and Development Organization pavilion at the Defense Expo 2014 in New Delhi last month. Prakash Singh/AFP/Getty Images

India remains the world’s largest arms buyer by a huge margin, even as regional rivalries spur the flow of arms to other countries in Asia, according to a report released Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

India increased its arms imports by 111 percent in the past five years compared with 2004–08, and it now accounts for 14 percent of the world’s arms imports. The mainly Russian-supplied flow of arms to India dwarfs the imports of its regional rivals China and Pakistan, the second- and third-largest buyers.

“There is money, there is threat perception, and there is a willingness of exporters to supply weapons,” said Siemon Wezeman, a senior researcher with SIPRI Arms Transfers Program and a co-author of the report.

The United States and Russia dominate arms exports — over half the market, combined — but their business has diversified and shifted focus from Europe toward emerging world powers such as India, Brazil and China. Even as European imports declined by a full quarter over the past five years, the volume of global arms sales climbed 14 percent in 2009 through 2013 compared with the previous five-year period, SIPRI found.

Because arms sales fluctuate year to year, SIPRI uses a five-year average to provide a more stable measure of trends.

By a substantial margin, Asia witnessed the greatest growth in arms imports. The region buys 47 percent of the globe’s major weapons. Among the bigger importers is South Korea, which ranked eighth in that period, reflecting both the country’s burgeoning economic prowess and rising tensions with North Korea. The South has devoted its considerable defense spending to being able to detect and destroy North Korean missiles, SIPRI said.

But the global arms-importing trifecta consists of three Asian countries that eye each other with constant suspicion: India, Pakistan and China. Though India went on the biggest buying spree in the world, Pakistan has boosted its weapons imports by 119 percent and now ranks third in the world behind China, which has gained a foothold in high-tech arms exports as well. Relations between India and Pakistan have been hostile since they split in 1947, a history punctuated by several wars and an ongoing border dispute in the Kashmir region, but China’s recent efforts to expand its regional military presence are viewed as especially threatening.

“China’s naval modernization is starting to infringe on the Indian Ocean, which India considers its backyard,” Wezeman said. “That’s why you see both countries expanding naval forces slowly and carefully toward Southeast Asia.”