According to the leading think tank, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), global military spending increased by 7% to $2.43 trillion in 2023. It is the highest annual rise since 2009 and is attributed to worsening international peace and security amid ongoing conflicts. The top three spenders in 2023 were the United States, China, and Russia, Reuters reports.
Nan Tian, senior researcher at SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme, said: “States are prioritising military strength, but they risk an action-reaction spiral in the increasingly volatile geopolitical and security landscape.”
On Monday, SIPRI said Russia raised spending by 24% to an estimated $109 billion. Ukraine increased spending by 51% to $65 billion and received at least $35 billion in military aid from other countries.
“Combined, this aid and Ukraine’s own military spending were equivalent to about 91% of Russian spending,” the think-tank said.
It said NATO member countries’ spending totalled 55% of the world’s expenditure.
“For European NATO states, the past two years of war in Ukraine have fundamentally changed the security outlook,” SIPRI researcher Lorenzo Scarazzato said.
“This shift in threat perceptions is reflected in growing shares of GDP being directed towards military spending, with the NATO target of 2% increasingly being seen as a baseline rather than a threshold to reach.”
NATO member states are expected to set aside at least 2% of the alliance’s gross domestic product for defence expenditure.
SIPRI said most European NATO members had boosted such spending. The U.S. raised it by 2% to $916 billion, representing around two-thirds of total NATO military spending. China is in second place, raising its military spending by around six per cent to $296 billion. The Middle East and Asia also saw notable increases. Israel increased its spending by 24%, while Saudi Arabia, the biggest spender in the region, hiked its budget by 4.3%. Japan and Taiwan have both increased their defence spending following rising tensions with China. Their budgets have gone up by 11% each.
