Tuesday, September 27, 2005

 

Search for Peace

In today’s world, USA, UK, Russia, France, Germany are the torchbearers of peace. The following figures give some idea of their interest in arms control. (And this list only a small one compiled by me in less than one hour on internet.) The name of Japan does not come out. But it may be interesting to find out the percentage of Japanese stakeholders in US arms manufacturing companies. Now it is upto the reader to face the reality i.e. what kind of Peace he/she is looking for. One more question comes in my mind ‘Where the terrorists, whether it’s IRA or Tamil Tigers or Hamas or Taliban get their arms from?’
Delhi has announced new defense orders to Russia, Germany, Italy, Israel and even Qatar, worth a total of US$746 million. The government had cleared the purchase of 12 used Mirage 2000 V fighter aircraft from Qatar and 11 Dornier 228 aircraft from Germany for maritime surveillance,
US government has facilitated the sale of $200 million in defence equipment. The purchases included radar systems from Raytheon Co. and spare parts for naval helicopters. US officials say there could be more contracts in the pipeline.
India concluded a $1 billion purchase of Israel’s Phalcon airborne radar system, strengthening its ability to conduct surveillance deep inside neighbouring countries.
New Delhi purchases more than 60 Hawk trainer jets from BAE Systems PLC of the United Kingdom for $1.7 billion.
India will spend a staggering amount of US $ 15 billion to purchase latest arms and weapon systems from Russia which includes the new anti-missile system S-300, the latest T-90 tanks, additional SU-30 state-of-the-art fighter aircraft, three modern frigates, one nuclear submarine and the updating of India's large fleet of MIG-21 aircraft
Pakistan's missile program has the secret backing of China and North Korea. The 750-kilometer range Shaheen-I and 1,500-kilometer Ghauri-I ballistic missiles are believed to be derivatives of the Chinese M-9 and North Korean Nodong missiles
China has purchased more weapons than any other nation in the developing world, signing nearly US$10.5 billion in deals from 2001 to 2004
Saudi Arabia was second in signing arms deals last year with contracts valued nearly $3 billion
The U.S. once again topped the trade with developing states with deals worth nearly $7 billion in 2004, or 31.6% of world-wide contracts.
Russia was second with close to $6 billion in arms deals to developing countries, up from nearly $4.5 billion in 2003
Britain was third in arms transfer agreements to the developing world in 2004,
The total worldwide value of all agreements to sell arms last year was close to $37 billion, and nearly 59% of the agreements were to sell weapons to developing nations. Arms deliveries to developing nations rose from nearly $21 billion in 2003, to $22.5 billion last year.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

 

you will find me

you will find me

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

Subscribe to Posts [Atom]