Global defense spending continues to rise, India tops South Asia: Report

Global defense spending has increased for the ninth year in a row, reaching a total of $24.43 trillion in 2023.

Global defense spending is expected to grow by 6.8 percent in 2023, the largest year-over-year increase since 2009.

According to a report released on Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SPRI), the increase in global defense spending can be linked to rising tensions in Ukraine, Asia, Oceania and the Middle East.

However, if we talk about a single region, Africa saw the largest increase in defense spending, which was 22 percent higher than in 2022.

According to the report, the top five defense spending countries were:

1. America: Who spent 9.16 trillion dollars.
2. China: Who spent 2.96 trillion dollars.
3. Russia: Who spent 1.09 trillion dollars.
4. India: Which spent 8.36 billion dollars.
5. Saudi Arabia: Who spent 7.58 billion dollars.

According to Spry, the same countries were included in the list of the first five countries in 2022 as well.

According to the Sperry report, in 2023, the United States will spend the most on defense in the world, with a share of 37 percent (Screengrab: Sperry Report).

According to the data of 2023, these five countries collectively accounted for 60% of the world’s defense expenditure. Which includes only 37 percent of the United States, 12 percent of China, 4.5 percent of Russia, 3.4 percent of India and 3.1 percent of Saudi Arabia.

Where does Pakistan stand?

According to Spry’s global ranking, Pakistan stands at the lowest level in terms of defense spending over the past decade.

According to the report, in the financial year 2023-24, Pakistan spent 8.5 billion dollars on defense. Which is negative 13% as per 2014 to 2023 (ten years) average.

If we talk about the share of defense budget in Pakistan’s GDP, it was 3.1% in 2014 which has reduced to 2.8% in 2023.

In 2022, Pakistan was ranked 24th in the global defense expenditure ranking, which is now at 30th.

Pakistan ranks 30th in the global ranking of defense expenditure released by Spree (Screen grab: Spree Report).

Analyst Zahid Hussain told Independent Urdu that ‘I have not seen the SPRI report, but if there has really been a negative 13% average decline in 10 years, it is quite surprising.’

Zahid Hussain said that the major part of the funds allocated for defense expenditure in Pakistan is kept secret. In addition, inflation has reached around 36% in the last ten years. If this is kept in view, perhaps this impression of negative 13 percent will disappear because the overall defense budget has increased anyway.

Zahid Hussain, while talking about the need for a minimum defense budget for Pakistan as a nuclear power, said that it is difficult to determine. Pakistan is a nuclear power but the defense budget depends on how secure your borders are. Pakistan’s relations with India on its eastern border have never been ideal.

Afghanistan is located on the western border, on which the Pakistani state maintains that extremists are carrying out operations. Similarly, we do not have a long-standing conflict with Iran on the western border, but there has been an exchange of fire in the last two years. In such a situation, there is a need to keep conventional weapons ready along with nuclear weapons.

Defense requirement of India

India ranked fourth globally, third in Asia and first in South Asia in 2023 with $83.6 billion in defense spending in the global rankings.

India’s share in global defense expenditure stood at 3.4 percent.

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Commodore Retired Anil Jai Singh, Vice President of the Indian Maritime Foundation, while talking to Independent Urdu, said that India needs to spend this for its defence. However, India is doing this defense expenditure in balance keeping in mind its national development needs.

Explaining India’s defense needs, Singh said that India is facing two dynamic threats on its borders. China to the north and Pakistan to the west. These two nuclear powers have been entangled with India for the past several years.

He further informed that ‘Apart from this, India also faces security of sea lanes and internal threats which require conventional weapons and a large army.’

Maria Sultan, chairperson of the South Asian Strategic Studies Stability Institute, disagrees with India’s stance on the threat it faces on its eastern border.

Maria told Independent Urdu that “Pakistan is focusing on economic stability rather than security conflict”.

He said that this effort is ongoing at the state level and its example is the statements of Pakistani prime ministers and army chiefs on international relations in the past few years, which contain signs of peace.

Maria added that the establishment of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) and the Army Chief’s active role in it is a clear example of what Pakistan’s priorities are now.

However, he said that it is up to Indian decision makers to decide whether India sees a threat on its borders or not.

Talking about India’s consumption of defense budget, Maria said that ‘most of India’s expenditure is coming on Make in India project’. He was referring to India’s defense industry, where weapons and defense technology are being developed in India.

“Such industries are mostly joint ventures and built on partnerships with American companies,” Maria said. The money spent on them is ultimately going to run the American economy’.

He also said that ‘India can be assumed to be pitted against China’.

Middle East and Gulf countries

From the end of 2023, there is a new wave of conflicts in the Middle East and Gulf countries.

The biggest and most important conflict among them is Palestine. Apart from this, Iran and Israel’s retaliatory attacks on each other have also worsened the peace and order situation in the region.

According to Spry’s report, the countries with the highest defense spending in the Gulf and the Middle East in 2023 are:

1. Saudi Arabia: which spent 75.8 billion dollars and ranked fifth in the world ranking.
2. Israel: which spent 27.5 billion dollars and ranked 15th in the world.
3. Iran: which spent 10.3 billion dollars and ranked 26th in the world.
4. Kuwait: Which spent 7.8 billion dollars and ranked 32nd in the world.
5. Oman: which spent 5.9 billion dollars and ranked 37th in the world.

The Middle East sees an overall nine percent increase in defense spending in 2023.

According to Spry’s report, Israel’s defense budget in the Middle East alone has increased by 24 percent, mainly because of the ongoing war in Gaza.

What will the future look like?

Three regions stand out in terms of defense spending in Spry’s report: Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

According to the report, Ukraine spends 37% of its GDP on defense in Europe.

In Africa, Algeria and South Sudan spend 8.2 percent and 6.3 percent of their GDP on defense, respectively.

In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia and Israel spend 7.1 percent and 5.3 percent of their GDP on defense, respectively.

According to Maria Sultan, ‘this is a clear sign that contradictions and conflicts among the world’s three global powers are inevitable. They include America, Russia and China. However, its proxies will be different.

He said that ‘Europe, which had not been paying much attention to defense spending at least since the Cold War, is now investing in defense again because of the Ukraine war’.

According to Maria Sultan, this shows that conflicts will continue in the world.