ISLAMABAD: World military spending reached an all-time high of $2.24 trillion in 2022, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompted a sharp jump in military spending in Europe, according to a leading defence think tank.
Global spending increased for the eighth consecutive year, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said Monday in its annual report on global military expenditure.
Spending in Europe increased by 13 percent, the steepest in at least 30 years.
SIPRI said most of this was linked to Russia and Ukraine, but other countries also ramped up military spending in response to perceived Russian threats.
The continuous rise in global military expenditure in recent years portrays an increasingly insecure world, said Nan Tian, senior researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme.
He said states are boosting military strength in response to a deteriorating security environment, which they feel would not improve in the near future.
Surge in spending reflects threats from Russia-Ukraine war
Moscow’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014, and later invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has alarmed other countries that neighbour Russia or were once part of the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence, with Finland jumping its military spending by 36 percent and Lithuania by 27 percent, according to SIPRI.
The United States remained the largest military spender in the world — up 0.7 percent to $877bn in 2022 — 39 percent of total global military spending. The increase was mainly driven by “the unprecedented level of financial military aid it provided to Ukraine,” SIPRI’s Nan Tian said.
Washington’s financial military aid to Kyiv totalled $19.9bn in 2022, according to the think tank.
China retained its position as the world’s second-largest military spender, allocating an estimated $292bn in 2022 – 4.2 percent more than in 2021 representing the 28th consecutive annual increase.
Meanwhile, Japan spent $46 billion on the military in 2022, a rise of 5.9 percent from the previous year. SIPRI said it was the highest military spending by Tokyo since 1960.
Japan and China were the highest military spenders in Asia and Oceania, which amounted to $575bn. SIPRI said military expenditure in the region has been on the rise since at least 1989.
Tensions in East Asia have escalated over the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which Beijing considers a part of its territory. China also lays claim to almost all of the South China Sea, a major maritime trading route, parts of which are also claimed by countries including the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia.
Tokyo and Beijing are also embroiled in a dispute over the Senkaku or Diaoyu Islands, which lie northeast of Taiwan.
Japan also has a long-standing dispute with Russia over the Northern Territories, which lie northeast of Hokkaido and were seized by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II. Russia calls them the Kuril Islands.
