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Global military spending passes $2-T for first time: survey

ANKARA – Global military expenditure reached an all-time high of over USD2 trillion in 2021, according to an international survey released Monday.

Total military spending rose 0.7 percent from the previous year and reached USD2.113 trillion, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said.

It said the global military burden, or world military expenditure as a share of world gross domestic product (GDP), fell by 0.1 percentage point from 2.3 percent in 2020 to 2.2 percent in 2021.

The five largest spenders in 2021 were the US, China, India, the UK and Russia, together accounting for 62 percent of expenditure, according to SIPRI.

Alexandra Marksteiner, a researcher with SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Program, pointed out that the US is focusing more on next-generation technologies,

"The US government has repeatedly stressed the need to preserve the US military’s technological edge over strategic competitors," she noted.

Russia, meanwhile, increased its military expenditure by 2.9 percent in 2021 to USD65.9 billion, at a time when it was building up its forces along the Ukrainian border, it said, adding this was the third consecutive year of growth and Russia’s military spending reached 4.1 percent of GDP in 2021.

"Russian military expenditure had been in decline between 2016 and 2019 as a result of low energy prices combined with sanctions in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014,” said Lucie Beraud-Sudreau, director of SIPRI’s Military Expenditure and Arms Production Program.

Ukraine’s military spending has also risen by 72 percent since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, as the country has strengthened its defenses against Russia. (Anadolu)

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