According to a new research report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the Trump administration’s policies have led to an increase in military spending by the US for the first time in seven years.
Calculations by SIPRI also noted that the worldwide military spending also rose by 2.6 percent to $1.8 trillion overall last year.
“The increase in US spending was driven by the implementation from 2017 of new arms procurement programmes under the Trump administration,” said Aude Fleurant, director of SIPRI’s Arms and Military Expenditure (AMEX) programme.
The US figure alone of $649 billion accounted for as much as the next eight highest military budgets.
But the Chinese also helped push the overall spending figures for the year higher, said the report.
China’s spending has risen 83 percent since 2009, bringing it up to the second place, ahead of Saudi Arabia, India — which is modernising its armed forces — and France.
Another military powerhouse Russia has meanwhile dropped out of the top five spenders, with its military budget declining since 2016, said the report.
Western countries’ economic sanctions against Russia, in place since 2014 because of its conflict with Ukraine, have hit the country’s military budget.