III. Transparency in arms transfers

Chapter:

15. International arms transfers

Source:

SIPRI Yearbook 2016

Author(s):

Siemon T. Wezeman

Official and publicly accessible data on arms transfers—both exports and imports—is important for assessing states’ policies on arms exports, arms procurement and defence. While publishing data on arms transfers is a sensitive issue for nearly all states, most have published information in the past 25 years for at least a single year. However, the amount of information published varies significantly between states. Since the early 1990s a growing number of governments have published national reports giving details of their arms exports. As of January 2016, 35 states had published at least one national report on arms exports since 1990. Of those, only 3 had failed to issue a report since 2009. Of the 32 states that have reported since 2009, 31 provided information about arms export licences granted, and 26 included information about actual arms exports. In 2015 no state produced a national report on arms exports that had not done so previously.¹ Some states that do not publish national reports on arms exports, release official data on the overall financial value of their arms exports as part of a separate report, a press release or as an attributed or unattributed quote in a media report. States that make such data available through one or other of those means include Israel, South Korea, Russia and Turkey.