STOCKHOLM, Sweden, March 11 (UPI) -- Sweden in 2009 sold arms worth $1.9 billion, a 7 percent increase over the previous year, a government agency said.
"Of the total defense materiel exports, 80 percent went to well-established partner countries, both within the EU and to countries like South Africa and the United States," Andreas Ekman Duse, the head of the Swedish Agency for Non-Proliferation and Export Controls, or ISP, said in a statement.
The ISP monitors and controls weapons exports. It said 2009 saw the biggest yearly growth of arms sales since it began monitoring them in 1996.
Ekman Duse said large-scale, single-product sales such as that of the Combat Vehicle 90 to the Netherlands and the Saab JAS 39 Gripen to South Africa influence the statistics.
The Gripen is a lightweight multirole fighter jet that is cheaper than the Eurofighter; Sweden, Hungary and the Czech Republic already operate the aircraft; Thailand and South Africa have ordered it.
BAE Systems of Britain has a long-standing stake in Saab and the Gripen project but is determined to sell it. Earlier this month, BAE Systems decided to sell 10 percent of its remaining 20.5 percent share.
The CV 90, a Swedish infantry fighting vehicle designed by Swedish company Haegglunds/Bofors and produced by BAE Systems Haegglunds, is being exported mainly to European nations.
The top three export destinations in 2009 were the Netherlands, with $352 million; South Africa, with $240 million; and Pakistan, with $197 million.
While more than half of all exports went to European nations, 27 percent went to what Duse called "well-established partner countries" -- the United States, Australia, South Africa, Canada, South Korea and Singapore.
Weapons exports to more questionable markets -- including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Bahrain -- continued in 2009, to the dismay of Swedish parliamentarians.
Lars Angstroem, a senior official with the Swedish Green Party, said Saudi Arabia should be dropped from the export list.
"Saudi Arabia seriously and systematically violates human rights as defined by the United Nations and it is unacceptable that exports have gone there," he said in a statement.
The ISP said it banned arms exports to Pakistan in 2007 but was honoring contracts signed before that year. The agency can block sales to countries at war or known to commit human rights violations but also has the power to grant exceptions for clear defense or national security reasons.
