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TV Parasuram in Washington
India signed a US $ 4.8 billion global arms deal last year, second only to United Arab Emirates, while the US led the arms sellers accounting for $ 18.6 billion, an American Congressional report has said.
UAE, which purchased $ 7.4 billions worth of arms was placed before South Korea, which inked $ 2.3 billion worth of global contracts, it said.
The report prepared by Richard F Grimmett, a specialist in national defence, said that global arms sales to developing countries grew by 8 percent to nearly $ 36.9 billion during the period.
It said developing countries remain the largest market for weapons, and a growing one.
"Despite global changes since the end of cold war, developing world continues to be the primary focus of foreign arms sales activity by conventional weapons suppliers," said the report.
It said the second and the third in the sellers list were Russia with $ 7.7 billion of the entire chunk and France $ 4.1 billion.
Germany's arms sales stood at $ 1.1 billion, Britain $ 600 million, China $ 400 million and Italy $ 100 million, according to the report.
The study also documented the supplier-buyer relationship between Russia and Iran.
It said US administration officials expressed concern that Russia's arms relationships could compromise on American technological secrets shared with it, in addition to destabilising the region.
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