India third largest military spender globally behind US, China

New Delhi, Apr 27: India is the third highest military spender behind the United States and China, according to the latest military expenditure database prepared by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

It said that the US accounted for 39 per cent of the money spent on military globally, followed by China at 13 per cent and India at 3.7 per cent. In 2020, the US spent USD 778 billion. China spent USD 252 billion and India USD 72.9 billion, the report also said.

The report also noted that the spending during the pandemic in 2020 had gone up when compared to 2019. India's spending grew by 2.1 per cent from 2019 and in the case of China it was at 1.9 per cent.

The US on the other hand increased its spending by 4.4 per cent when compared to its expenditure in 2019.

The US military spending was 3.7 per cent of its GDP and in the case of China and India it was 1.7 per cent and 2.9 per cent respectively. While the spending between 2011 and 2020 dropped by 10 per cent for the US, in the case of China and India the it grew by 76 per cent and 34 per cent respectively.

The military spending in Asia and Oceania was 2.5 per cent higher in 2020 than in 2019 and 47 per cent higher than in 2011, continuing an uninterrupted upward trend since at least 1989" and attributed the rise "primarily to increases in spending by China and India, which together accounted for 62 per cent of total military expenditure in the region in 2020, according to SIPRI.

The other top spenders were Russia with USD 61.7 billion, UK at USD 59.2 billion, Saudi at USD 57.5 billion. "Global military expenditure rose to $1981 billion last year, an increase of 2.6 per cent in real terms from 2019" and the "five biggest spenders in 2020, which together accounted for 62 per cent of global military expenditure", the report said.