New Delhi: India has overtaken Russia to be among the world’s top-four military spenders in 2018, according to a global think-tank, which has attributed the rise in defence expenditure to tensions with China and Pakistan.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) report stated that India’s defence spending rose by 3.1 per cent to $66.5 billion. The United States, China and Saudi Arabia were the top three defence spenders of 2018, followed by India and France. In 2017, India was at the fifth spot. Russia, which occupied the fourth position in 2017, has fallen out of the top five bracket for the first time in 12 years and is now sixth.
Pakistan is on the 20th spot in the list of 40 countries, as per the SIPRI report.
The top five countries accounted for 60 per cent of global military spending, the report said. The top 15 countries in the list spent $1,470 billion in 2018, and accounted for 81 per cent of the global military expenditure, it added.
US military spending rose for first time in 7 years
As per the SIPRI report, while the US has the highest share of the world’s military expenditure at 36 per cent, its military spending rose for the first time in seven years to $649 billion in 2018.
The report said China increased its military expenditure by 5.0 per cent and India by 3.1 per cent. Saudi Arabia decreased its military spending by 6.5 per cent, France by 1.4 per cent and Russia by 3.5 per cent.
The global military expenditure was $1,822 billion in 2018, an increase of 2.6 per cent from 2017 in real terms.
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29% growth in a decade
India’s military expenditure has risen by 29 per cent over the decade between 2009 and 2018.
“At $66.5 billion, India’s spending was 29 per cent higher than in 2009. Despite this rise, India’s military burden in 2018 was at one of its lowest levels since the early 1960s: 2.4 per cent of GDP compared with 2.9 per cent in 2009,” the report said.
The report explained that a country’s military expenditure as a share of GDP or the military burden is the simplest measure of the relative economic burden the military places on that country.
Pakistan’s position
“Pakistan’s military spending in 2018 was $11.4 billion, making it the 20th largest spender globally,” the report stated, adding that its military spending has increased every year since 2009.
“It rose by 73 per cent between 2009 and 2018 and by 11 per cent between 2017 and 2018. Pakistan’s military burden in 2018 was 4.0 per cent of GDP — the highest level since 2004,” the report added.
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Saudi Arabia
The report said after an increase of 72 per cent between 2009 and 2015, when Saudi Arabia’s military expenditure reached its peak, the country’s defence spending dropped by 28 per cent in 2016 due to falling oil prices that led to a decline in government revenue.
The report said Saudi Arabia’s military spending increased by 11 per cent in 2017, but decreased by 6.5 per cent in 2018. “The fall in 2018 occurred despite Saudi Arabia’s high levels of arms imports and the continuation of its military intervention in Yemen,” it added.