The top five countries to spend the most on their military in 2023 were the United States, China, Russia, India and Saudi Arabia. They are followed by Great Britain, Germany, Ukraine, France and Japan.
RUSSIA
According to SIPRI estimates, Russian military spending last year amounted to $109 billion, up 24% from the previous year. Compared to 2014, when Russia annexed Ukrainian Crimea, the increase was 57%.
The Russian military budget accounted for 5.9% of the country’s total GDP – for comparison, a decade ago this figure was 4.1%. The report states that in 2023, Russian military spending amounted to 16% of total government spending.
UKRAINE
Ukraine, which spent $64.8 billion on defense last year, ranked eighth in the world in terms of military spending, which is one and a half times more than in 2022. In 2023, more than half of Ukraine’s government spending (58%) was for military purposes.
At the same time, foreign aid occupied a prominent place in Ukraine’s military budget. During the year, the country received at least $35 billion in military support, with the majority (25.4 billion) provided by the United States.
Although Ukraine’s own defense spending amounted to only 59% of Russian military spending during the same period, when combined with foreign aid, this spending was equivalent to 91% of Russian military spending.
USA and NATO
In 2023, US military spending increased by 2.3%, reaching $916 billion. This amount exceeds two-thirds of NATO’s total military spending, making the United States the alliance’s largest contributor.
However, spending by other NATO member states has also increased. “For European NATO states, the last two years of war in Ukraine have fundamentally changed security prospects,” said Lorenzo Scarazzato, a researcher at SIPRI. “This shift in threat perception is reflected in the growing share of GDP devoted to military spending, with NATO’s 2% target increasingly seen as a baseline rather than a threshold to be achieved.”
We are talking regarding a target for military spending for Alliance members. In 2014, in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea, NATO authorities agreed to allocate 2% of their GDP to defense spending to ensure the Alliance’s continued military readiness.
By 2023, as noted by SIPRI, 11 of 31 NATO members have reached (or exceeded) the two percent target. This is the highest level since the commitment was made ten years ago.
CHINA
In 2023, China ranked second on the list of countries that spent the most money on military purposes. Beijing allocated $296 billion for military purposes, an increase of regarding 6% during the year.
China accounted for half of the total military spending in the Asian region, while, as SIPRI notes, some of China’s neighbors linked the increase in their own spending precisely with the increase in Beijing’s military spending.
China’s neighbors have allocated significant sums to the armed forces: for example, Japan’s spending amounted to regarding $50 billion, Taiwan’s – 16.6 billion (in both cases, an increase of 11% compared to 2022).
NEAR EAST
Separately, the report’s authors highlight growing military spending in the Middle East, which increased by 9% over the year – a record growth rate in a decade.
Israel’s military spending – the second highest in the region following Saudi Arabia – increased by 24%. SIPRI experts attribute this mainly to the Israeli army’s offensive in the Gaza Strip in response to the attack by Hamas (designated a terrorist organization in the United States) in October 2023.
In fourth place in terms of spending in the region is Iran, whose military spending exceeded 10 billion. Of this, 37% is spent on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran’s elite military unit.
CENTRAL and SOUTH AMERICA
An increase in military spending was also recorded in the countries of Central America and the Caribbean; however, in their case, this dynamic is linked to the fight once morest organized crime. Compared to 2014, the growth in spending on the armed forces in the region has increased by more than one and a half times.
Mexico spent the most on military needs in Central America, whose military expenditures amounted to $11.8 billion. “The use of the military to quell social violence has been a growing trend in the region for many years, as governments are either unable to address the problem through conventional means or prefer immediate – often more brutal – measures,” said Diego Lopez da Silva, a researcher at SIPRI.
In South America, Brazil has the highest spending on the armed forces (almost $23 billion per year).
AFRICA
On the African continent, the largest military spending is observed in Algeria, which spent 76% more on the country’s armed forces in 2023 than in 2022. SIPRI believes that record spending for the country is associated with increased revenues from the sale of hydrocarbons to European countries that are in search of alternative Russia’s sources of oil and gas.
The largest percentage increase in spending on military needs around the world was recorded in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In a country where there is ongoing conflict between the government and armed groups, spending increased by 105%. In second place in terms of this indicator is also the African country South Sudan (78% increase in expenses).
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2024-05-01 01:21:39
