NEW DELHI – India has joined the US and China as one of the world’s fivebiggest military spenders, reflecting geopolitical tensions as well as thecountry’s reliance on imported weapons and sprawling personnel costs.
New Delhi’s defense spending rose by 5.5 percent to $63.9 billion in 2017and has now passed France, the Stockholm International Peace ResearchInstitute said in a report released Wednesday.
Worldwide military spending rose marginally last year to $1.73 trillion, orroughly 2.2 percent of global gross domestic product, the group said. Thelist of the world’s biggest military spenders has remained consistent inrecent years, dominated by the U.S. and China, which spent $610 billion and$228 billion respectively, according to SIPRI, which researches global armsspending.
New Delhi’s defense spending rose by 5.5 percent to $63.9 billion in 2017.
However, the group said the balance of military spending is “clearlyshifting” toward Asia, Oceania and the Middle East, driven largely byspending increases in China, India and Saudi Arabia.
China spends far more on its military than any other power in Asia.
Arms procurement from foreign vendors increased slightly.
Beijing’s share of worldwide military expenditure rose to 13 percent in2017 from just 5.8 percent in 2008, according to SIPRI. The Chinesegovernment has increased spending 8.5 percent per year between 2007 and2016 and its leaders “seem committed to increases in defense spending forthe foreseeable future, even as China’s economic growth slows,” accordingto a U.S. Department of Defense report on China’s military.
In India’s case, however, increased spending doesn’t mean the armed forcesare deploying state-of-the-art equipment. The rise in defense spendingmostly goes toward salaries and pensions for roughly 1.4 million servingpersonnel and more than 2 million veterans, said Laxman Kumar Behera, aresearch fellow with New Delhi’s Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.
Only 14 percent goes toward military modernization compared to 63 percentfor salaries.
“Because so much money is consumed by manpower costs, there isn’t enoughleft over to buy equipment,” Behera said.
India’s own army echoes that sentiment. Vice-Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen.Sarath Chand told a parliamentary committee in March the current budgetbarely accounts for inflation and tax payments. Only 14 percent goes towardmilitary modernization compared to 63 percent for salaries, Chand said.
SIPRI previously ranked India as the world’s largest arms importer becauseits domestic defense manufacturing industry remains curtailed by red tape,a reliance on state-owned defense companies and procurement delays.