Weapons Industry: India seeks shift from buying weapons to exporting them

India's arms imports account for nearly 10% of the global total, with Russia being the country's main supplier. However, New Delhi is now seeking to become a big exporter of weapons to the rest of the world.

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https://www.dw.com/en/india-seeks-shift-from-buying-weapons-to-exporting-them/a-52270331

Saudi Arabia: France and Britain still selling weapons to Saudi Arabia despite killing of journalist and other human rights problems

Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Emmanuel Macron clash over Saudi weapons.

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https://p.dw.com/p/37GIs

EU-US Relations: Trump Tariffs: EU to respond to any U.S. auto tariff move: by Mathieu Rosemain

The European Union will respond to any U.S. move to raise tariffs on cars made in the bloc, a senior European Commission official said, the latest comments in an escalating trade row.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to impose a 20 percent tariff on all imports of EU-assembled cars, a month after his administration launched an investigation into whether auto imports posed a national security threat.

“If they decide to raise their import tariffs, we’ll have no choice, again, but to react,” EU Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen told French newspaper Le Monde.

“We don’t want to fight (over trade) in public via Twitter. We should end the escalation,” he said in the comments published on Saturday.

Trump told carmakers at a meeting in the White House on May 11 that he was planning to impose tariffs of 20 or 25 percent on some imported vehicles and sharply criticized Germany’s automotive trade surplus with the United States.

Note EU-Digest: Come on EU Commission, take your gloves off, and hit Trump where it hurts: medical equipment and supplies, weapons industry, NATO.

Read more: EU to respond to any U.S. auto tariff move: report | Reuters

Weapons Industry: A vicious Circle, as US, Russia,China, EU create wars in Middle East and arms sales there soar amid widespread conflict

Arms imports by Middle East countries mired in violent conflict have doubled in 10 years — and the US, Russia and Europe remain the major suppliers, according to latest research.

Arms imports by Middle Eastern states have more than doubled over the past decade, with the US and European countries the main suppliers of weapons to the region. This is one of the main conclusions of the latest report by SIPRI — the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

The independent think-tank dedicated to arms control and disarmament says the volume of international major weapons shipments rose by 10 per cent between 2013-2017 compared to the previous five-year period — largely due to an increase to the far east and the Middle East.

Five countries — the United States, Russia, France, Germany and China — accounted for nearly three-quarters of all arms exports over the past five years.

Note EU-Digest:  :"War is most profitable for us", said one major arms exporter, "and let no one tell you that countries involved in these proxy wars, are in it for moral reasons, It all comes down to economic benefits. So please rest assured these wars will go on forever, for some reason or whatever".

Read more: US and European arms sales to Middle East soar amid widespread conflict | Euronews

Weapons Industry: Global arms sales in 2015 reached €348 billion with US share €225.47 or 80% of total reports SIPRI

Global weapons industry sales reached  €348 billion in 2015

Arms sales went on a downward slide last year, falling by 0.6 percent compared to 2014, according to the latest analysis on the global arms industry by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

The trade had been experiencing a downward trend since 2011, but the reduction in arms sales last year showed that the pace of decline had slowed.

Despite the decrease, arms sales for the world's top 100 companies in 2015 reached $370.7 billion (348 billion euros), the think tank said in its study, indicating that the sinking numbers were no sign that the world was getting more peaceful.

"It [arms sales] has decreased, but it is still over a third higher than it used to be in the early 2000s," Aude Fleurant, director of the SIPRI arms and military expenditure program, told DW. "It is slowing down, possibly indicating a reversal of the trend since 2010. So it is difficult to say at this stage …

There are contradictory trends all over the world and it is difficult to identify a clear trend so far," she added.

US firms remain on top of the arms sales industry.

Companies based in the US dominated the arms business, with total sales amounting to $209.7 billion (€225.47 Billion) , or more than 80 percent of the total arms business in the world. Lockheed Martin maintained its position as the largest arms producer on the planet.

EU-Digest

Weapons Industry: “War is Good For Business”: Is the EU About to Grant a 3.5 Billion Euro Subsidy to Weapons Companies? - by Andrew Smith

Recently the European Parliament will be debating the general EU budget for 2017/18. The main focus of the debate is likely to be the knock-on impacts of Brexit and the falling pound, infrastructure, migration and the many other major challenges facing the continent.

Understandably, a lot of significant items are likely to be overlooked, including a crucial point, that could see the EU taking steps towards adopting an institutional military-industrial strategy. Buried within the budget is the EU’s first proposed Preparatory Action for defence research.

If the budget is agreed, this would effectively be a trial-run that would see the European Parliament subsidising military research for the first time. It would represent an important precedent. At present, the European Commission finances exclusively civilian or dual-use R&D through its €80 billion Horizon 2020 programme.

The proposal, would cover the period of 2017-2020 at the estimated cost of€50-100 million – paving the way for a full research programme that the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS), which made the proposal in the first place, estimates would cost at least €3.5 billion between 2021-2027.

Right from the start, the process has been influenced by those with a vested interest. The group that put the EUISS report together included high level representation from some of the biggest arms companies in the world. In fact, the majority of those on the Group of Personalities that the EUISS appointed to develop proposals are from the arms trade, so the pro-military conclusion is not particularly surprising.

In effect the arms industry has been brought in to advise the EU on military strategy and reached the conclusion that what is needed is more military spending.

Needless to say, arms companies already benefit from huge amount of public money. A lot of arms company R&D is already funded by member states. Supporters of the change have made clear that they do not foresee any parallel reduction of national budgets for military research, with manyn Member States still bound by their NATO commitments.

There is no question that security is a major challenge and that the EU has a critical role to play in addressing it. However, threats to security are multi-faceted and the solutions that the EU proposes to address them must be clearly based on the Treaties and core values of the EU.

The EU was envisaged as a peace project. The European Parliament stood up for those values this February, when it voted to support an arms embargo against Saudi Arabia due to its devastating bombardment of Yemen. Many of the weapons being used in the destruction are made in Europe, with many being manufactured by the same companies that would benefit from the proposed subsidy.

The EU should be investing in jobs and research projects that promote sustainable industries and contribute to the prevention of conflicts. This proposal could mean taking funds from other projects for something that would only benefit those that profit from war and conflict.

In a busy news agenda, the change may not be generating the headlines that the precedent deserves, but it is getting grass-roots opposition, with over 62,000 people having signed a European Network Against Arms Trade petition to oppose the spending.

Underpinning the opposition is the broader question of what kind of Europe we want. Do we want a social Europe that invests in people and peace, or do we want one that focuses on arms, militarism and war?

As UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has said ‘the World is over-armed and peace is under-funded.’ The EU could play a big role in changing this, but right now it risks doing the exact opposite

There is an international dimension to it too. The ADS, a trade body for arms companies, is clear about its motivations for supporting the proposal, which it says is focused on trying to “maintain and improve long-term competitiveness in the European Defence Industry.”

No explanation is provided for where the money would come from. Would it mean cutting 3.5bn EUR from other budgets? What would be cut in order to fund it? There is also very little explanation of how it will be spent or what checks-and-balances will be in place to stop it from becoming a blank-cheque for arms companies.

Do we want a social Europe that invests in people and peace, or do we want one that focuses on arms, militarism and war?

Read more:  Is the EU About to Grant a 3.5 Billion Euro Subsidy to Weapons Companies?

Saudi Arabia: Money, not morality speaks in America, specially when it concerns Weapons Industry

US Senate refuses to block Saudi Arabia arms sale http://flip.it/2KqDyH

Weapons Industry: U.S. Military Spending vs. the World

The U.S. outpaces all other nations in military expenditures. World military spending totaled more than $1.6 trillion in 2015. The U.S. accounted for 37 percent of the total.

                                                     The U.S. military expenditures are roughly the size of the next seven largest military budgets around the world, combined.

In fiscal year 2015, military spending is projected to account for 54 percent of all federal discretionary spending, a total of $598.5 billion. Military spending includes: all regular activities of the Department of Defense; war spending; nuclear weapons spending; international military assistance; and other Pentagon-related spending.

Read more: U.S. Military Spending vs. the World

Weapons Industry: U.S. is the Mecca of Weapons and Killing Machine Exports.

There was a time when America’s greatest exports were high-quality consumer goods, such as automobiles and textiles. Today, most American manufacturing has been outsourced to Chinese and Latin American sweatshops. However, there’s still one thing that the U.S. does extremely well: design, manufacture and export the finest killing machines and equipment of any nation on the planet. Furthermore, our nation’s defense industry sells more of them than anyone else in the world.

This windfall for fine corporations such as Lockheed-Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing and others is due largely to recent contracts with their three biggest customers: South Korea, Qatar and our reliable Middle Eastern “ally”, Saudi Arabia. Despite the fact that global weapons sales have leveled off and more companies are jumping into the industry in order to get their piece of the pie, U.S. weapons sales rose from $26.7 billion to $36.2 billion in 2014 – representing an increase of 35%.

While the U.S. is leading the parade of death and destruction, it’s not marching alone. In second place is Russia, having sold $10.2 billion worth of weaponry (a slight drop from the previous year), followed by Sweden, France and China.

The Congressional study in which these figures were presented finds that a weakened global economy has led to much slower sales. In fact, despite a slight increase in global weapons purchases (approximately .03%), the study found that “the international arms market is not likely growing at all.”

This state of affairs has in turn increased competition among weapons manufacturers.

And the U.S. is coming out on top. While the country is crumbling from within, those with connection to the weapons industry are swimming in pools of champagne, nibbling on truffles and fine caviar while riding aboard their private jets and luxury yachts, financed by blood-soaked dollars. It’s not likely to change, either.

Weapons manufacturers are offering great deals, such as flexible financing (making certain their customers remain debt slaves for decades), co-production agreements, and counter-trade agreements (essentially, a form of in-kind payment or barter).

Read more: U.S. is the Mecca of Weapons and Killing Machine Exports. Doesn't That Make You So Proud? - The Ring of Fire Network