India Spends $71 Billion On Defence, Replaces Russia To Become World's Third Largest Military Spender

Out of the five largest military spenders in 2019, which accounted for 62 per cent of the total expenditures, India stood at the third position, with the US and China at first and second respectively, followed by Russia and Saudi Arabia.

The comprehensive data released by The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on Monday, stated that the two Asian countries made it to the top three for the first time, India growing by 6.8 per cent to $71.1 billion and China to $261 billion, a 5.1 per cent increase compared with 2018.

"India's tensions and rivalry with both Pakistan and China are among the major drivers for its increased military spending," says Siemon T. Wezeman, SIPRI Senior Researcher, as stated in the organisation's website.

Many other reasons could account for India's high defence expenditure, including pensions for more than 3 million veterans and defence civilians, deals to purchase or lease out new combat jets, air defence missile systems and warships.

Russia was the fourth-largest spender in the world, increasing its military expenditure by 4.5 per cent to $65.1 billion, whereas, Saudi Arabia as the fifth- largest at $61.8 billion.

Germany and Europe's military spending, on the other hand, was up 10 per cent to $ 49.3 billion, the largest increase among the top 15 military spenders in 2019.

The US topped the rundown of military spenders with $732 billion, representing 38 per cent of the total global defence expenditure, spending nearly as much on its military a year ago as the following 10 highest spenders joined, the report said.

Total global military expenditure rose to $1917 billion, up 3.6 per cent from year-to-year, accounting for total 62 per cent of the global military expenditure, representing a marginal increase of 2.2 per cent in the global gross domestic product (GDP), which equates to approximately $249 per person.

Dr Nan Tian, SIPRI Researcher says that spending was the highest since the 2008 global financial crisis and probably represents a peak in expenditure.

The issued statement also suggested the economic crisis resulting from COVID-19 pandemic will probably 'disrupt' the future military spending. The organization stated that it will be closely monitoring ongoing developments to assess the extent of this crisis on military spending.

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