Global military expenditure reached its highest level last year since the end of the Cold War, fueled by increased spending in the United States and China, the world’s two biggest economies, a leading defence think-tank said on Monday.
According to the new data released by think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on Monday, India was the world’s fourth biggest military spender last year behind the United States, China, and Saudi Arabia. India was the fifth largest military spender in 2017. The data also revealed that overall global military spending in 2018 hit $1.82 trillion, up 2.6 percent on the previous year.
The think tank also said that France also figures on the list of top five spenders that together accounted for 60% of the global military spending in 2018.
The SIPRI report comes at a time when India is investing heavily in building its military capability with new fighter jets, warships, helicopters, artillery guns and infantry weapons.
U.S. military spending rose 4.6 percent last year to reach $649 billion, leaving it still by far the world’s biggest spender. It accounted for 36 percent of total global military expenditure, nearly equal to the following eight biggest-spending countries combined, SIPRI said.
The SIPRI data says China was the second-largest military spender last year. Beijing increased its military expenditure by 5% to $250 billion in 2018. It accounted for 14% of global military spending. While in contrast, India’s military spending went up by 3.1% to $66.5 billion. India accounts for 3.7% of the global defence spending.
Nan Tian, a researcher with the SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure (AMEX) programme, said, “In 2018 the USA and China accounted for half of the world’s military spending.”
Aude Fleurant, the director of the SIPRI AMEX programme, said in a statement, “The increase in U.S. spending was driven by the implementation from 2017 of new arms procurement programmes under the Trump administration.”
The other top spenders are, in declining order, Saudi Arabia, India, France, Russia, Britain, Germany, Japan and South Korea. Saudi Arabia, which is leading a military coalition battling Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen, was the biggest per capita spender on defence, just ahead of the United States.
The think tank also revealed that with military spending of $11.4 billion, Pakistan was at the 20th place on the list of the leading military spenders. Experts said that India’s military spending was insufficient against the backdrop of the challenges it faces in its neighbourhood.
