New Delhi with its ever-expanding budget on defence expenditures has become one of the world’s top spenders on military infrastructure. According to a report released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), India’s defence spending rose by 5.5 percent from its 2016 levels to $63.9 billion in 2017.

India’s increasing spending on defence reflects its geopolitical relations with its two big neighbours – China and Pakistan, that it has had hostile relations with and continues to have border disputes. “Tensions between China and many of its neighbours continue to drive the growth in military spending in Asia,” said Siemon Wezeman, senior researcher with SIPRI’s arms and military expenditure programme. The report said that China’s military spending, at an estimated USD 228 billion, accounted for 48 percent of the total defence spending in the Asia and Oceania region, and was 3.6 times that of the region’s second largest spender, India.

India was in the fifth spot, after the U.S., China, Saudi Arabia and Russia, and they together accounted for 60% of global military spending, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in a report on Wednesday. Its spending in 2017 was higher than that of France ($57.8 billion), UK ($47.2 billion) and Germany ($44.3 billion).

A large percentage of India’s defence spending is in fact for paying salaries of its 1.4 million serving personnel as well as servicing pensions of former defence personnel. The Hindustan Times reported that in February this year, the Indian government allocated R2.95 lakh crore for military spending during 2018-19, compared to last year’s budget of R2.74 lakh crore. The figure includes Rs. 99,563 crore for buying new weapons and systems, up from R86,488 crore in the previous fiscal. The budget breached the R4-lakh-crore mark after factoring in defence pensions (R1.08 lakh crore). This year, the military budget slipped to just 1.57% of the GDP.

In a report released in March, SIPRI said India was the world’s largest weapons importer in the last five years and that arms exported by the U.S. to India during 2013-17 registered a 557% jump when compared to 2008-12. India was Russia’s biggest customer but is slowly being replaced by the U.S. and Israel.

“Continuing high world military expenditure is a cause for serious concern,” Jan Eliasson, chair of the SIPRI governing board, said. “It undermines the search for peaceful solutions to conflicts around the world,” he added.

However, the group said as the balance of military spending is “clearly shifting” toward Asia, Oceania and the Middle East, it also figures that .the security dynamic of the world is changing.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 03, 2018 06:29 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).