Tue, Apr 23, 2024 page5

• Military spending hits all-time high

  REGIONAL TENSIONS: China boosted spending on its military for the 29th straight year, raising it by 6% to US$296bn, while Taiwan spent US$16.6bn, an 11% increase

  • AFP, STOCKHOLM
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  Global military expenditure recorded its steepest increase in over a decade last year, reaching an all-time high of US$2.4 trillion as wars and rising tensions fueled spending across the world, researchers said yesterday.

  Military spending rose across the globe with particularly large increases in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, according to a new report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

  “Total military spending is at an all-time high ... and for the first time since 2009, we saw spending increase across all five geographical regions,” SIPRI senior researcher Nan Tian said.

  

  Troops stand guard outside a polling station during a national referendum in Olon, Ecuador, on Sunday.

  Photo: Bloomberg

  Military spending rose by 6.8 percent last year, the “steepest year-on-year increase since 2009,” the report said.

  “It’s a reflection of the deterioration of peace and security around the world. There’s really not a region in the world where things have gotten better,” Tian said.

  The US, China, Russia, India and Saudi Arabia were the top five spenders respectively.

  The continuation of the war in Ukraine led to an increase in spending by Ukraine, Russia and “a whole host” of European nations, Tian said.

  Russia boosted spending by 24 percent to US$109 billion last year, according to SIPRI’s estimates.

  Since 2014, when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea, the nation’s military spending has risen by 57 percent.

  Ukraine’s military spending rose by 51 percent, reaching US$64.8 billion, but the nation also received US$35 billion in military aid, of which the majority came from the US, meaning the combined aid and spending equaled over nine-10ths of Russia’s spending.

  Tian said that while Moscow’s and Kyiv’s overall budgets were relatively close last year, Ukraine’s military spending equaled 37 percent of its GDP and 58 percent of all government spending.

  By contrast, in Russia, which has a larger economy, military spending amounted to just 5.9 percent of its GDP.

  “So the room for Ukraine to increase its spending is now very limited,” Tian said.

  In Europe, Poland recorded the largest increase in military spending by far, up by 75 percent to US$31.6 billion.

  Spending also rose across the Middle East, where Israel — the region’s second-largest spender — recorded a 24 percent increase to US$27.5 billion — mainly driven by the nation’s offensive in Gaza in response to last year’s Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

  Saudi Arabia, the Middle East’s largest spender, also upped its spending by 4.3 percent to an estimated US$75.8 billion.

  The US — which spends more on its military than any other nation — increased spending by 2.3 percent to US$916 billion.

  China boosted spending on its military for the 29th straight year, raising it by another 6 percent to an estimated US$296 billion.

  Beijing’s military buildup and worsening tensions in the region have prompted its neighbors to dedicate more funds to their militaries.

  Taiwan spent US$16.6 billion and Japan US$50.2 billion last year, an increase of 11 percent for both nations. The world’s fourth-largest spender, India, hiked spending by 4.3 percent to US$83.6 billion.

  In Central America and the Caribbean, spending increases were instead driven by other struggles, such as fighting organized crime.

  The Dominican Republic upped spending by 14 percent in response to worsening gang violence in neighboring Haiti spilling over the border.

  Africa also saw military budgets swell.

  The Democratic Republic of the Congo increased its spending 105 percent to US$794 million, the largest percentage increase of any nation, as tensions grew with neighboring Rwanda.

  With an increase of 78 percent, South Sudan recorded the second-largest increase, to US$1.1 billion.

  With the war in Ukraine being “nowhere close to an end,” as well as the current situation in the Middle East and heightened tensions in Asia, Tian said he believed nations were likely to continue boosting their militaries.

  “The expectation is that this increasing trend will continue for at least a few years to come,” he said.
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