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Defence: India outspends Pakistan 9:1 in 2024, says new report
New Delhi’s military expenditure grew 1.6% annually to $86.1 billion last year, according to the report.
New Delhi : India’s military spending in 2024 was nearly nine times that of Pakistan and the fifth highest in the world in a year that saw global spending on arms register the fastest increase since at least the end of the Cold War, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) said in a report published on Monday.
New Delhi’s military expenditure grew 1.6% annually to $86.1 billion last year, according to the report. In contrast, Pakistan spent $10.2 billion last year, the report noted. “India… increased its spending… by 42% from 2015,” said the report titled “Trends in World Military Expenditure 2024”.
Globally, military expenditure reached $2718 billion in 2024, an increase of 9.4% in real terms from 2023 and the steepest year-on-year rise since at least 1988. Military spending increased in all world regions, with particularly rapid growth in both Europe and West Asia, both ravaged by war last year.
The top five military spenders — the US, China, Russia, Germany and India—accounted for 60% of the global total, with combined spending of $1635 billion, the report added. “Spending has increased every year for a full decade, going up by 37% between 2015 and 2024,” the report said.
The findings come at a time when tensions between India and Pakistan are rapidly spiking in the aftermath of the chilling terrorist attack last week near Pahalgam town in Kashmir that left 26 people dead and around 15 others injured.
India has blamed Pakistan for the attack — the worst terrorist strike on civilians in the country since the 2008 Mumbai attacks — and has pointed to evidence such as signal intelligence, identification of three terrorists from across the border, and a statement by The Resistance Front, long considered a proxy for the Lashkar-e-Taiba, claiming responsibility for the deaths.
Last week, New Delhi unfurled a bouquet of punitive diplomatic measures — suspending the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, downgrading bilateral ties, and shutting down the Attari checkpost — as it hit back at Islamabad over the brazen attack.
China's military spending up by 7% to $314 billion
China’s military expenditure increased by 7% to an estimated $314 billion, marking three decades of consecutive growth, the study noted.
The communist nation accounted for 50% of all military spending in Asia and Oceania, investing in the continued modernisation of its military and expansion of its cyberwarfare capabilities and nuclear arsenal, it said.
Sipri said military spending in Europe (including Russia) rose 17% to $693 billion and was the main contributor to the global increase in 2024.
With the war in Ukraine in its third year, military expenditure kept rising across the continent, pushing European military spending beyond the level recorded at the end of the Cold War, it noted.
Sipri said Russia’s military expenditure reached an estimated $149 billion in 2024, a 38% increase from 2023 and double the level in 2015. This represented 7.1% of Russia’s GDP and 19% of all Russian government spending.
Ukraine’s total military expenditure grew by 2.9% to reach $64.7 billion — equivalent to 43% of Russia’s spending.
At 34% of GDP, Ukraine had the largest military burden of any country in 2024, the report added.
“Russia once again significantly increased its military spending, widening the spending gap with Ukraine,” said Diego Lopes da Silva, senior researcher with the Sipri Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme.
“Ukraine currently allocates all of its tax revenues to its military. In such a tight fiscal space, it will be challenging for Ukraine to keep increasing its military spending,” he said.
Several countries in central and western Europe saw unprecedented rises in their military expenditure in 2024 as they implemented new spending pledges and large-scale procurement plans, Sipri said.
It said Germany’s military expenditure increased by 28% to reach $88.5 billion, making it the biggest spender in central and western Europe and the fourth biggest in the world.
Poland’s military spending grew by 31% to $38.0 billion in 2024, representing 4.2% of Poland’s GDP, according to Sipri.
