The global ones military spending hit a new record high in 2023 for the ninth year in a row, a benchmark report released today indicates.
According to this report, published by the Stockholm-based International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI, the military spending in real prices, excluding inflation, they increased by 6.8% in 2023, reaching 2.44 trillion. dollars, against 2.24 trillion. in 2022, mainly because of him war in Ukraine.
This is the largest annual increase since 2009, the Institute underlines. All 10 countries with the highest military spending in the world have greatly increased them; the Russia-Ukraine war is considered the main cause of their spectacular rise. “All the regions we study have seen an increase,” which reveals that “the world feels less safe and is probably resorting to harsh measures for their security rather than diplomatic means,” SIPRI researcher Lorenzo Scarazzato told the German Agency.
Many governments perceive the escalation of “tensions and instability” and therefore increase their military spending, above all the European ones, after the invasion of the Ukrainian territory by the Russian army in February 2022, he explained.
The US remains by far the world’s number one, with military spending reaching $916 billion. This is more than a third—37%—of global military spending and roughly three times that of the second-ranked country: China.
Beijing spent an estimated $296 billion on China’s armed forces, or about 12 percent of global military spending, up 6 percent year-on-year, according to the Institute.
In other words, the US and China accounted for almost half of global military spending last year.
The top seven countries in the ranking remained unchanged from 2022, according to the report. Russia remained in third place, followed by India and Saudi Arabia.
Germany ranked 7th, just behind Britain.
Berlin is often criticized because its military spending “has not yet reached 2% of its GDP, the NATO target,” noted SIPRI researcher Skaratzato. However, one must take into account that Germany is the country with the second highest military expenditure in the Old Continent, behind only Britain, and that the percentage of its expenditure in 2023 was 1.5% of GDP, yet it has pledged to increase it to 2% from 2024 onwards.
Things are “changing” in Germany, he emphasized.
Alexander Lurtz, a disarmament expert at Greenpeace, chimes in, stressing that Germany “now has a significant contribution to the global arms race.”
“The disgraceful 7th place on the list of countries with the world’s largest military budgets should make anyone calling for a second special fund or debt brake reform to re-equip the Bundeswehr think again,” he added.
For Mr. Lurtz, security cannot be achieved simply with military armaments: “We can see that massive armaments do not make the world safer, on the contrary they make violence worse everywhere.”
Global military spending equals 2.3% of global GDP.
The largest percentage increase in the top ten of the ranking was recorded in Ukraine: it was 51%, with spending reaching $64.8 billion. From 11th in 2022, Ukraine ranked 8th in 2023. Military spending accounted for nearly 60%—58% to be exact—of its total government spending.
The figure is much higher than that of Russia, where military spending accounted for 16% of total public spending.
Other countries have provided Kiev with at least $37.3 billion in military aid. Ukrainian military spending and foreign aid is estimated to account for 91% of Russian military spending.
In Russia, military spending is up 24% to $109 billion in 2023, SIPRI estimates.
Source: RES-MPE
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