Global military spending in 2017 reaches $1.7 trillion

By Emre Aytekin

STOCKHOLM/ANKARA (AA) - Global military expenditure rose to $1.7 trillion in 2017, the highest since the Cold War, according to a Stockholm-based international survey released on Wednesday.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in a statement that global military spending, increased 1.1 percent compared to 2016, an amount which equals 2.2 percent of the world's gross domestic product.

The five biggest spenders in 2017 were the United States, China, Saudi Arabia, Russia and India -- which together represented 60 percent of global military spending, SIPRI said.

"China’s military expenditure rose again in 2017, continuing an upward trend in spending that has lasted for more than two decades. Russia’s military spending fell for the first time since 1998, while spending by the United States remained constant for the second successive year," the report said.

The institute said the total military spending by all NATO members including Turkey was $900 billion in 2017, accounting for 52 percent of global spending.

"Continuing high world military expenditure is a cause for serious concern," Jan Eliasson, chair of the SIPRI governing board, said in a statement accompanying the results of the survey.

"It undermines the search for peaceful solutions to conflicts around the world," Eliasson said.

According to SIPRI researcher Nan Tian, cited in the report, the increases in world military expenditure in recent years have been largely "due to the substantial growth in spending by countries in Asia and Oceania and the Middle East, such as China, India and Saudi Arabia".

"At the global level, the weight of military spending is clearly shifting away from the Euro–Atlantic region," Tian said.