India 4th largest military spender in world after US, China and Russia: SIPRI report

According to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, India was the fourth largest military spender in the world in 2023 with the expenditure reaching $83.6 billion. The report further stated that India was spending 4.2% higher than the previous year.

The report published on Monday said that despite India's military spending rising by 4.2% from 2022, it was mainly a result of growing personnel and operations costs, which made up almost 80% of the total military budget in 2023.

The SIPRI report reflects India's defence spending going towards pension payouts. According to the Interim Union Budget 2024-25, Rs 1.41 lakh crore of the total Rs 6.21 lakh crore went towards pensions.

The US continued to remain at the top spot, followed by China and Russia. With a mammoth $916 billion expenditure, the US accounted for 37% of the total global expenditure, according to the report published on Monday. The US military expenditure has seen an increase given its direct support to Ukraine on the one hand and Israel on the other.

China, the world’s second-largest military spender, allocated an estimated $296 billion to its military in 2023, an increase of 6% over the previous year, according to SIPRI data.

The US and China together accounted for around half of global military spending last year.

The report mentions that the total global military expenditure increased by 6.8% in real terms. The reasons for rise in global military spending has been attributed to the ongoing war in Ukraine and escalating geopolitical tensions in Asia and Oceania and the Middle East.

This, it said, resulted in Europe, Asia, Oceania and the Middle East becoming some of the highest-spending regions in the world.

Here are the top 10 military spenders.

US ($916 billion), China ($296 billion), Russia ($109 billion), India ($84 billion), Saudi Arabia ($76 billion), UK ($75 billion), Germany ($67 billion), Ukraine ($65 billion), France ($61 billion) and Japan ($50 billion).

Pakistan was placed at the 30th spot with $8.5 billion.