USA and Russia dominate on arms market, despite delivery cuts

The US remained the world leader of weapons sales in 2003

The United States and Russia continued their domination on the arms market last year, despite the reduction of deliveries of arms in the world, The New York Times wrote with reference to the report from the research organization of the US Congress.

The US remained the world leader of weapons sales in 2003, with contracts totaling over $14.5 billion vs. $13.5 billion a year before. The index makes up 56.7 percent of the global arms sales.

Russia ranks second on the list with an estimated $4.3 billion of signed contracts. In 2002, Russia's arms contracts made up $6 billion (16.8 percent of the global arms sales). Germany takes the third place, as it concluded arms deliveries contracts in the total sum of $1.4 billion. |

According to the research, the total sum of arms contracts signed in 2003 worldwide made up $25.6 billion. The index reached $41 billion in 2000. The agreements with developing countries totaled $13.7 billion last year, which made up 53.6 percent of the overall amount of transactions in the world. It is quite a considerable reduction in comparison with $17.4 billion in 2002, Interfax reports.