The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in a statement on Monday, the 22nd of April, that global military spending increased by 7% to 2.43 trillion US dollars in 2023, the highest annual increase since 2009, amid a deteriorating international peace and security situation, reports Reuters.
The study said the biggest spenders for that year were the US, China and Russia.
Nan Tian, senior researcher at SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Weapons Production Programme, warned that countries are placing an emphasis on military force, which
risks escalating the action-reaction cycle in a fragile geopolitical and security environment.
SIPRI noted that Russia increased its spending by 24% to around 109 billion US dollars.
Ukraine increased spending by 51% to 65 billion US dollars and received at least 35 billion US dollars in military aid from other countries, adding that “in total, Ukraine’s military spending accounted for about 91% of Russia’s spending”.
The SIPRI report says that NATO members account for 55% of global military spending.
Researcher Lorenzo Scarazzato said that the conflict in Ukraine has fundamentally changed the security perception of European NATO countries. This change is reflected in the increasing share of military spending in GDP and NATO’s target of 2% of GDP is now seen as a starting point rather than a minimum threshold.
SIPRI pointed out that most European NATO members have increased their military spending.
The US increased it by 2% to 916 billion US dollars, about two thirds of NATO’s total military spending.
Also read: Russia: US support to Ukraine will end in “humiliating fiasco”
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