Conflicts drive ‘7% increase’ in global military spending by 2023

• The US and Russia boost military spending by 2% and 24%, respectively.
• SIPRI highlights a large share of GDP going to the military.
• NATO accounts for 55% of global military spending.

STOCKHOLM: As the world continues to be affected by various armed conflicts, such as the Russia-Ukraine war and Israel’s attack on Gaza, global military spending is set to grow 7% in 2023, the highest since 2009, to 2.43 trillion dollars.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a leading think-tank based in Sweden, the United States (US) and China emerged as the top two countries that have spent the most on their military forces .

Senior Researcher at SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Program Nan Tian said that while countries prioritize military might, they risk an action-reaction spiral in the increasingly volatile geopolitical and security landscape.

SIPRI said Russia increased its military spending by 24 percent to about $109 billion. while Ukraine increased its spending by 51% to $65 billion and received at least $35 billion in military aid from other countries.

“Combined, this aid and Ukraine’s own military spending amounted to about 91% of Russian spending,” the think-tank said.

It said that spending by North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member countries totaled 55% of global spending.

“For European NATO states, the past two years of war in Ukraine have fundamentally changed the security outlook,” said SIPRI researcher Lorenzo Scarazzato.

“This change in threat perceptions is reflected in increasing shares of gross domestic product (GDP) going towards military spending, with the NATO target of 2% increasingly seen as a baseline rather than a threshold to be achieved.”

SIPRI said most European NATO members had stepped up that spending. Meanwhile, the US increased it by 2% to $916 billion, accounting for about two-thirds of NATO’s total military spending.

It is pertinent to know that NATO member states are expected to allocate at least 2% of GDP for defense spending by the alliance.

Percentage changes are expressed in real terms at constant 2022 prices, SIPRI added.