Saudi Arabia in top 5 of global military expenditure in Decade in 2019

Global military expenditure at 3.6 per cent saw its largest annual spike in a decade in 2019 with China, India, Russia and Saudi Arabia being the second, third, fourth and fifth-largest spenders after the US, a Stockholm-based think-tank said on Monday.

The total global military expenditure rose to USD 1,917 billion in 2019, representing an annual growth of 3.6 per cent compared to 2018, according to a new report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Saudi Arabia surpassed France, Britain, Japan, Germany and South Korea, which ranked sixth to tenth.

Saudi Arabia has waged, for the past 5 years, an aggression against Yemen, in which it committed hideous crimes against civilians and imposes a harsh blockade that causes a humanitarian crisis that is the largest in decades.

The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 100,000 lives over the past five years.

According to the UN’s top aid official, Mark Lowcock, civilian casualties have risen every month since January.