New Delhi: With an expenditure of $71.1 billion in 2019, India has emerged as the third largest military spender in the world, just behind the US and China.
In a report published Monday, Swedish think-tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said India’s expenditure grew by 6.8 per cent from 2018 and the country climbed up the rankings from its earlier fourth spot.
Titled Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2019, the annual report said India’s tensions and rivalry with Pakistan and China were among the major drivers for its increased military spending.
China, which is second on the list with an expense of $261 billion, saw a 5.1 per cent rise in its defence spending.
This is the first time that the two Asian states have featured among the top three military spenders.
India’s expense rise
India’s military expenses have risen significantly over the past few decades. Over the 30-year period between 1990 and 2019, its spending grew by 259 per cent. In 2010-19 decade, the expenses grew by 37 per cent, the report said.
However, the country’s military burden fell from 2.7 per cent of the Indian GDP in 2010 to 2.4 per cent in 2019.
Its rival Pakistan’s military expenditure rose by 70 per cent over the decade to reach $10.3 billion, with the burden rising from 3.4 per cent of GDP in 2010 to 4 per cent in 2019.
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World expenses
According to the report, total global military expenditure rose to $1,917 billion dollars in 2019 – a 3.6 per cent rise over 2018 and the largest annual growth since 2010, said the SIPRI report.
The US’ military spending grew by 5.3 per cent to a total of $732 billion, accounting for 38 per cent of the global spend.
The increase in US spending in just 2019 was equivalent to the entirety of Germany’s military expense for the year.
“The recent growth in US military spending is largely based on a perceived return to competition between the great powers,” Pieter D. Wezeman, senior researcher at SIPRI, said in the report.
Russia and Saudi Arabia rounded off the top five largest spenders, all of whom accounted for 62 per cent of the global expenditure.
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