MILITARY
SPENDING - DEFENCE AND SECURITY
News:
Japan raises military
spending to counter China with more missiles and ships
What's
in the news?
● Japan’s
government is planning a record ¥7.7tn ($53bn) in annual defence spending to
expand its fleet and missile capabilities to counter rising military threats
from China and North Korea.
Key
takeaways:
● World military expenditure rose by
3.7% in real terms in 2022 to $2.24 trillion.
● Russia's
invasion of Ukraine, which began in February last year following years of
growing tensions, has prompted European countries to rush to bolster their
defences.
● Defence outlays among NATO members
- the Euro-Atlantic military alliance incorporating most European countries
have been going up since at least 2014.
○ European military spending shot up
13% last year, primarily due to increases by Russia and
Ukraine, but with many countries across the continent also ramping up military
budgets and planning for more amid the surging tensions.
● NATO members agreed to meet a defence
spending goal of 2% of national GDP by 2024, and many of them
have been slowly working toward that target.
● Ukraine's military spending rose 640%
in 2022, the largest annual increase recorded in SIPRI data going back to 1949,
with that total not including the vast amounts of financial military aid
provided by the West.
● SIPRI
estimated that military aid to Ukraine from the United States accounted for
2.3% of total U.S. military spending in 2022.
● The United States was the world's top
spender by far its overall expenditure rose only marginally in real terms.
● Russia's
military spending grew by an estimated 9.2%, though SIPRI acknowledged figures
were "highly uncertain given the increasing opaqueness of financial
authorities" since its war in Ukraine began.
● The
double-digit increases over the past decade across many countries, including
nuclear powers and those known for prioritizing armed forces, such as China (63
percent), India (47 percent), and Israel (26 percent).
○ In
each of these countries, however, defence spending has declined as a percentage
of national economic output.
Indian
Data:
● Despite an 11 percent drop in its
arms import between 2013-17 and 2018-22, India remained the world’s largest
arms importer from 2018 to 2022 followed by Saudi Arabia, according
to the latest report by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
(SIPRI).
● Russia was India’s largest arms
supplier in the periods between 2013-17 and 2018-22, but its
share of arms imports to India fell from 64 percent to 45 percent while France emerged as the second-largest arms
supplier to India between 2018-22 at 29 percent, followed by the US at 11
percent.
○ Aside
from Russia and France, India also imported arms during this five-year period
from Israel, South Korea, and South Africa which are among the top arms
exporters globally.
○ The
report said Russia’s position as India’s main arms supplier is under pressure
owing to strong competition from other supplier states, increased Indian arms
production, and, since 2022, constraints on Russia’s arms exports related to
its invasion of Ukraine.
● The
report said India’s tensions with
Pakistan and China largely drive its demand for arms imports.
● With
an 11 percent share of total global arms imports, India was the world’s biggest
importer of major arms in 2018–22, a position it has held for the period
1993–2022.
Russian
Arms Export:
● The
report said just under two-thirds of
Russian arms exports went to India, China, and Egypt in 2018-22 at 31 percent,
23 percent, and 9.3 percent, respectively.
Other
Key Findings:
● As
per the data, India was the
third-largest arms supplier to Myanmar during this period after Russia and
China and comprised 14 percent of its imports.
● It
also stated that 77 percent of
Pakistan’s arms supply in 2018-22 came from China.