France remains as world's fourth weapon exporter

France remained as the fourth-largest exporter of defense equipment in 2010, with orders totalling 5.12 billion euros (about 7.12 billion U.S. dollars), the French defense ministry said here on Wednesday. The figure, however, was some 37 percent down from 8.16 billion euros in 2009, due to the economic downturn last year. According to the ministry, the United States, the European Union (EU), Russia and Israel took up about 90 percent of the world arms market from 2001 to 2010. The U.S. is still the biggest defense equipment exporter, taking 53.7 percent of the global market while France only had 6 percent, maintaining its export value between 5 and 10 billion euros during the past five years. In a press release issued at the conference,the French defense ministry said the world arms market was a highly competitive market, dominated by a small number of exporters. "France is one of the few countries to master all the techniques," the ministry said. According to a report the French defense ministry presented to the Parliaments on the country's arms exports in 2010, 27 percent of the French weapon exports went to the Middle East last year, 25 percent to Latin America and 18 percent to Asia.