India spent 9 times more money on defence than Pakistan did in 2024, becomes 5th largest…, Islamabad’s defence budget stood at…

Amid escalating tensions with Pakistan following the Pahalgam fear assault, a new look has underlined the stark disparity between the 2 neighbours’ armed forces energy. India’s defence spending in 2024 turn into once almost nine times bigger than Pakistan’s, per findings launched on Monday (April 28, 2025) by the Stockholm Worldwide Peace Evaluation Institute (SIPRI). India’s armed forces expenditure rose by 1.6 per cent over the outdated year, reaching USD 86.1 billion — securing its role as the enviornment’s fifth-largest defence spender. In distinction, Pakistan’s defence budget stood at USD 10.2 billion, showcasing the widening gap in armed forces capabilities between the 2 rivals.

The document published that the high 5 countries, the United States, China, Russia, Germany, and India — collectively contributed to 60 per cent of world armed forces expenditure, which totalled USD 1,635 billion.

China, particularly, seen a critical upward push in its defence budget, increasing spending by 7 per cent to an estimated USD 314 billion. This marked the thirtieth consecutive year of enhance in its armed forces investments. Based on the document, titled ‘Trends in World Militia Expenditure 2024’, China on my own accounted for half of of the defence spending across Asia and Oceania, as it persevered to modernise its armed forces, give a enhance to its cyber capabilities, and kind bigger its nuclear arsenal.

Militia spending across Europe, including Russia, surged by 17% in 2024 to attain $693 billion, making it the most important driver in the abet of the enviornment upward push in defence budgets, the Stockholm Worldwide Peace Evaluation Institute (SIPRI) reported on Monday.

With the war in Ukraine dragging into its third year, defence expenditures persevered to climb across the continent, pushing European armed forces spending past the levels closing considered at the shut of the Frosty Warfare, the document observed.

Russia’s armed forces budget on my own soared to an estimated USD 149 billion in 2024 — a staggering 38 per cent style bigger from the outdated year and almost double what it turn into once in 2015. Defence spending now accounts for 7.1 per cent of Russia’s GDP and roughly 19 per cent of the authorities’s total budget, per SIPRI.

On the assorted facet, Ukraine’s armed forces expenditure rose modestly by 2.9 per cent to USD 64.7 billion, amounting to 43 per cent of Russia’s armed forces outlay. At 34 per cent of its GDP, Ukraine bore the heaviest armed forces burden of any nation globally in 2024, the look illustrious.

“Russia once extra greatly ramped up its armed forces budget, extra widening the gap with Ukraine,” talked about Diego Lopes da Silva, Senior Researcher at SIPRI’s Militia Expenditure and Fingers Production Programme. He warned that Ukraine, already allocating all its tax revenues to defence, faces most important challenges in sustaining extra increases beneath such fiscal strain.

Meanwhile, several countries in Central and Western Europe recorded ancient spikes in armed forces spending as they moved forward with new investment commitments and ravishing procurement drives. Germany boosted its defence budget by 28 per cent, reaching USD 88.5 billion — making it an extraordinarily grand spender in Central and Western Europe and the fourth highest globally. Poland’s defence expenditure furthermore seen a pointy upward push, rising by 31 per cent to USD 38 billion, which represented 4.2 per cent of its GDP, SIPRI added.