The United States and Russia maintain their leading positions in exports of major weapons during the period of 2012-2016 jointly amounting to 56 percent of global arms exports, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said.

According to SIPRI, the United States continued to be the leader in global arms exports over the last five years with a one-third share of global arms exports. US arms exports increased by 21 percent compared with the period of 2007-2011 and almost half of its arms exports went to the Middle East.

“The USA supplies major arms to at least 100 countries around the world — significantly more than any other supplier state. Both advanced strike aircraft with cruise missiles and other precision-guided munitions and the latest generation air and missile defence systems account for a significant share of US arms exports,” Aude Fleurant, the director of the SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure Programme, said as quoted in the press release.

Russia maintains its second place in the ranking, and its share in global arms exports stands at about one-fourth (23 percent). India, Vietnam, China and Algeria are the main buyers of the Russian weapons, as 70 percent of Russian arms exports went to these four states during the outlined period.

Another three leading countries in SIPRI’s ranking of global weapons exports are China, France and Germany.

China’s share of global arms exports rose from 3.8 to 6.2 percent over the past ten years, and France and Germany accounted for 6 percent and 5.6 percent in 2012-2016, respectively.