In 2021, global military spending increased for the seventh consecutive year to reach a record $2.113 billion. This is the highest figure ever recorded by the International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) based in Sweden. The United States remains at the top of the top spending countries despite a slightly lower budget. China, India and the United Kingdom follow. Russia, it finds itself in fifth position.
Russia’s spending rose 2.9% to $65.9 billion in 2021. Planes, tanks, infantry equipment, everything goes. In relation to the country’s GDP and according to the experts, this is a level much higher than the world average. Proof that lights were turning red. Russia was preparing very seriously for its invasion of Ukraine. It is certainly easier to say after the fact, but if it had to be demonstrated once again, it is thanks to the increase in the price of hydrocarbons that Moscow has put cartridges back in its magazine. From 2016 to 2019, gas and oil are cheaper, which translates into lower inflows into the coffers and therefore lower Russian investments. In 2020, prices are on the rise again. Moscow is spending again. On the other side of the border, Ukraine had initially taken this threat into account: 72% more spending since the annexation of Crimea. Strangely, the pace had slowed down last year, as if kyiv no longer believed in an attack from its neighbor.
When the Peace Research Institute shows how countries prepare for war, it highlights the trouble spots on our planet. And as such, you have to watch everything to the east of the map. Quite simply because you have an actor who spends lavishly and who by his attitude pushes his worried neighbors to put their hands in their pockets. Beijing, with its 293 billion dollars injected into armaments, is bubbling the Indo-Pacific zone. His views on Taiwan, on islets in the China Sea, his desire to increase his influence over the entire region, in New Caledonia and beyond have led India, Japan and Australia to constantly review their budgets since 10 years: +7% in Tokyo, +4% in Canberra. In the latter case, it should be remembered that Australia has just signed a major contract estimated at 128 billion dollars. Submarines bought in the United States to counter Chinese inclinations in the region. A contract for which France had paid the price last September…
With more than 56 billion dollars invested, France finds itself in 6th position, just behind Russia. French military spending has increased by 2 billion compared to last year. This upward trend is almost generalized for European countries. The major efforts concern above all the countries of Eastern Europe. Romania and Latvia have chosen to increase this budget to 2.5% of their GDP from next year. Sign of the concern that Russia generates for these countries which prefer to equip themselves urgently rather than arm themselves with patience.