NEW DELHI, Oct 1: India has emerged as the world’s third largest arms buyer during 1999-2002, behind China and the United Arab Emirates, an Indian news report said on Wednesday quoting a report before the US Congress.

“Developing nations continued to be the focus of foreign arms sales by weapons suppliers, with India ranking third with arms transfer agreements valued at 8 billion dollars during 1999-2002,” United News of India said quoting a report presented to the US Congress.

It said China was the top arms procurer among developing nations with 11.3 billion dollars in arms transfer agreements in the last four years with the United Arab Emirates coming second at 9 billion dollars.

In 2002, it was China again at the top spot with purchase agreements totalling 3.6 billion dollars, with South Korea second with 1.9 billion dollars and India a close third with 1.4 billion dollars, UNI said.

The ‘Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations’ is annual report prepared by the Congressional Research Service that provides unclassified data on conventional arms transfers to developing nations by the US and foreign countries for the preceding eight years.

During 1995-2002, the value of arms transfer agreements with developing nations made up 66.2 per cent of all such agreements worldwide.

More recently, arms transfer agreements with developing nations constituted 64.6 per cent of all such agreements globally from 1999-2002, and 60.6 per cent of these agreements in 2002.

UNI quoted the report to the Congress as saying that the value of all arms transfer agreements with developing nations in 2002 was nearly 17.7 billion dollars.

This was an increase over 2001, but still the second lowest total, in real terms, for the entire period from 1995-2002.

In 2001, the value of all arms deliveries to developing nations was nearly 17 billion dollars, the lowest total in deliveries values for the entire period from 1995-2002.