arms trade

Liberal democratic governments in the Pacific are keeping an eye out for signs of arms trade between North Korea and Russia.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute released a report stating that global arms sales went down by 5 percent in 2011, due to developed nations spending less. Companies are trying to diversify into other geographies and cyber security, and big U.S. companies still doing all right.

The $60 billion international arms trade is unregulated. After years of talks, the U.N. set a date last week for finalizing the Arms Trade Treaty.

The United Nations urged member states Monday to increase efforts to curb trade in illegal arms and light weapons.

Proponents of the treaty have said that ongoing conflicts in Syria, Mali, Sudan, and recently, Libya, are fueled by the unregulated trade of weapons and ammunition, which fall into the wrong hands.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution Wednesday calling on United Nations member states to publicly disclose all arms trade deals, including reporting on small arms and light weapons.

A House committee will vote June 20 on whether to hold U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt, the committee announced Monday.

Countries under arms embargoes imported $2.2 billion in weapons between 2000 and 2010, according Oxfam.

“Since 2007, trace data shows a trend in recovered and submitted crime guns from Mexico shifting from pistols and revolvers to rifles,” the ATF said in a statement.

The world’s five largest importers of weapons over the last half decade are all in Asia, reflecting a variety of tensions playing out in the region, according to newly released data from Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

A ship that departed from Russia carrying arms en route to Syria was stopped in Cyprus on Wednesday.