Despite virus, global military spending grew in 2020, led by US

2020 saw largest uptick in year-on-year outlay for more than a decade, even as some countries redirected funds to fight pandemic.

Global military expenditure rose by 2.6 percent to $1.98 trillion last year even as some countries reallocated their defence funds to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said in a report issued on Monday. The five biggest spenders in 2020, which together accounted for 62 percent of military spending worldwide, were the United States, China, India, Russia and the United Kingdom, in that order, according to the Sweden-based body. “We can say with some certainty that the pandemic did not have a significant impact on global military spending in 2020,” Diego Lopes da Silva, a SIPRI researcher and one of the report’s authors, said in a statement.