Regional Report on Arms Exports 2022
The Regional Arms Exports Report, covering Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia, is the result of over a decade of regional cooperation and commitment to transparency by the authorities in the Western Balkans, willing to share their arms export data. The first regional report was published in December 2009.
The 2022 edition reflects some trends similar to those of previous years regarding arms exports from the region while flagging also new ones. In this light, the number of issued export licenses decreased compared to previous year, with a total of 667 licenses issued by the reporting jurisdictions worldwide in 2022. However, there was an increase in the utilization of these licenses. Expressed in percentages, 25.74% of the licenses issued were used in 2022 compared to 21.75% in 2021. Furthermore, 54.6% of the arms exports by the region were related to the ML3 category – as per the EU Common Military List with ML4 and ML8 following the above-mentioned category.
According to the 2022 report, Serbia remains the leading arms exporter, accounting for 69.65% of the total exports from the region, while Bosnia and Herzegovina follows with 25.20%. In comparison to the 2021 report, Serbia's share of total exports increased, while Bosnia and Herzegovina's share has decreased. Conversely, Albania’s, Montenegro’s and North Macedonia’s shares in total exports from the region increased in 2022.
The 2022 Report marks also some changes in the trends regarding the main export destinations. Namely, the top five regions receiving the largest exports from the Western Balkans are: European Union, other European destinations, North America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Middle-East. Among these regions, the Middle East recorded the highest ratio of the value of realized exports to the value of issued licenses at 59.49%, while North America recorded the lowest at 6.93%.
Additionally, exports to the European Union more than doubled compared to the previous year, with EUR 158.8 million in 2022. This represents the highest recorded export from this region to the EU since the first regional report. The top five destinations in the EU for exports from the Western Balkans in 2022 include Bulgaria, Estonia, Romania, Slovakia and Poland. On the other hand, exports to Saudi Arabia and UAE continued to decrease.
The Regional Arms Exports Report is a knowledge product developed by SEESAC in partnership with the authorities in the Western Balkans and is financed by the European Union within the framework of the EU Council Decision (CFSP) 2019/2111 in support of SEESAC disarmament and arms control activities in South-East Europe reducing the threat of illicit small arms and light weapons and their ammunition (amended by EU CD 2024/381).
To access the 2022 Regional Report on Arms Exports, click here.
To access an analysis of the data on arms exports from the region in the last five years, click here.
The previous reports are available here.