Bahrain cuts military spending by 9.8% last year

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain was among the Middle Eastern countries that reduced military spending last year. According to the data released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) yesterday, the Kingdom cut its military spending by 9.8%.

While total global military spending rose to $1.981 trillion in 2020, an increase of 2.6% compared to 2019, a 6.5% drop – equivalent to $143 billion – was recorded in the Middle East region.

The top five military spenders last year were the US, China, India, Russia and the UK, in that order, and together they accounted for 62% of total global military spending. China’s military spending also grew for the 26th consecutive year.

The SIPRI report also shows the combined military spending for 11 Middle Eastern countries and oil-exporting countries. Eight of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) nine-member states for which the institute obtained its numbers reduced their military spending last year.

Aside from Bahrain, a nonOPEC oil exporter, Saudi Arabia reduced its military spending by 10%, and Kuwait by 5.9%. Angola decreased by 12%.

The countries that witnessed the largest increase in the military burden were among the 15 biggest spenders in 2020, among them Saudi Arabia (+0.6 percentage points), Russia (+0.5 percentage points), Israel (+0.4 percentage points), and the US (+0.3 percentage point).

The 2.6% increase in global military spending comes in a year in which global GDP has shrunk by 4.4% (according to the International Monetary Fund), largely due to the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. US military spending in 2020 was about $778 billion, representing an increase of 4.4% over 2019.

As it is the largest military spending in the world, the US accounted for 39% of total military spending last year. China’s total military spending, the second-highest in the world, is estimated at $252 billion in 2020.

This represents an increase of 1.9% from 2019 and 76% over the decade 2011-2020. Russian military spending increased by 2.5% in 2020 to $61.7 billion. With a total of $59.2 billion, the UK became the fifth-largest spender in 2020.

UK military spending was 2.9% higher than in 2019 but 4.2% lower than it was in 2011. In addition to China, India ($72.9 billion), Japan ($49.1 billion), South Korea ($45.7 billion), and Australia ($27.5 billion) were the largest military spenders in the Asia and Oceania region, and the four countries increased their military spending between 2019, 2020 and 2011- 2020 decade.