Rivalry with the neighboring countries is being considered the main reason for increase in the military expenditure
As per the research report published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) stated that India has become the third country to spend largely on military. Notable, the highest spender on military is the U.S followed by red dragon China.
This is for the first time that India and China are topping in the list of military expenditure. Rivalry with neighbouring countries Pakistan and China has been projected as the main reason for the increase in military expenditure.
Report ‘Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2019’ named by SIPRO mentioned that in South Asia India’s spending on military was the highest.
India Military expenditure hike
As per the research, India has increased its military spending by 6.8 percent.
India’s military expenditure has increased significantly over the past few decades. The growth in the expenditure over the 30-year period 1990 to 2019 was 259 percent and over the decade 2010-2019, it was 37 percent. However, in 2010 India military burden fell from 2.7 percent of GDP to 2.4 percent in 2019.
In 2018, India ranked fourth after Saudi Arabia as the largest spender. India’s military spending was $66.5 billion which has increased to $71.1 billion in 2019.
Apart from the rivalry with the neighbors, capital expenditure for submarines, procuring warships, helicopters, and aircraft, and the expansion of the salary and pension bills are the other reason this hike.
Read more: The army doesn’t want police and paramilitary forces to copy its combat pattern uniform
Military expansion trends
In 2019, an increase of 3.6 percent of the total global military expenditure climbed to $1,917 billion compared to 2018 spending along with the largest annual growth in spending since 2010.
The top five largest spenders on military including Saudi Arabia and Russia accounted for 62 percent of the total expenditure in 2019.
Beating the list, the U.S military spending the largest in the world. Increased by 5.3 percent to a total of $732 billion in 2019. The US share in the global military spending is 38 percent. Red dragon China has allocated $261 billion on the military accounting for 14 percent of the global military expenditure.
Pakistan’s military expenditure grew by 70 percent over the last decade 2010-2019, to reach $10.3 billion. Pakistan positioned 24th in the list of military spending, the report said.
Have a news story, an interesting write-up or simply a suggestion? Write to us at info@oneworldnews.com
