An agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Israel to normalize relations will lead to an increase in US arms sales, CNBC reported referring to Senator Tom Cotton.

“The UAE has been an outstanding partner of the United States,” Cotton said on “Squawk Box.” “They’ve long invested in United States military articles and I suspect that they will do even more of that now.”

Last week, the Trump administration announced a peace deal between the United Arab Emirates and Israel. The move is the latest attempt to normalize diplomatic relations between Arab countries and Israel. The agreement makes the UAE the first Gulf country to normalize relations with Israel, and the third Arab country after Egypt and Jordan.

Cotton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, added that the new connections could attract other countries in the Middle East to purchase additional US military products.

“I also suspect that there could be other Arab nations that follow in this path and that could also open up the opportunities for more arms sales to our allies to defend against enemies like Iran,” he said.

According to the State Department, the world spends nearly $ 3 trillion a year on armaments, with the United States accounting for most of the world's arms sales.

Between 2015 and 2017, approximately 17% of US arms exports went to the Middle East, 12% to the European Union, and 27% to East Asia.

Saudi Arabia is America's top arms buyer and the world's largest arms importer. According to a report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, between 2015 and 2019, 73% of Riyadh's arms imports were from the United States.