Eastern Europe increases defense spending

(Baonghean) - On Monday, April 13, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) announced that the crisis in Eastern Ukraine has forced changes in defense spending by Russia and countries in Eastern Europe.

A military parade in Romania. Photo: AP

According to SIPRI statistics, the United States is still the country that spends the most on defense. But these costs in 2014 decreased by 6.5% compared to 2013, to only 610 billion USD. Despite the decrease, the level of investment in defense of the United States is still 45% higher than before the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

Right behind the US is China with $216 billion in military spending, up 9.7% from last year. Russia is in third place with $84.5 billion. But it seems that the military budget of the White Birch country is still increasing, especially when the war situation in eastern Ukraine has not been completely resolved.

In 2014 alone, spending on modernizing Russia’s armed forces increased by 8.1%. In the first months of 2015, military investments in Russia increased by another 15%. The conflict in Ukraine seems to be causing many countries in Central Europe, the Baltics, and even Northern Europe to reconsider their defense policies.

“The crisis in Ukraine has fundamentally changed the security situation in Europe,” said Sam Perlo Freeman, one of the SIPRI experts. However, so far, observers have only noted changes in military spending by Russia’s neighbors.

Regarding Eastern European countries, in 2014, Ukraine increased its defense spending to $4 billion, equivalent to an increase of 23% compared to the previous year. This figure is expected to double in 2015. Poland also increased its defense spending by 13% in 2014, and is expected to increase to 38% in 2015.

Meanwhile, countries around the world are generally reducing their defense spending. This is the third consecutive year that SIPRI has recorded a reduction in defense spending. The evidence is that military investments in 2014 decreased by 0.4% compared to the previous year, equivalent to 1,1776 billion USD. SIPRI said, "Countries such as the United States and Western Europe have continuously cut defense spending in recent years, but the rest of the world has maintained in 2014, although defense spending in Latin America has not changed significantly."

In Africa, military spending increased by 5.9% while in Asia and Oceania it increased by 5%. In Asia alone, China is believed to be the cause of the increase in defense spending in the region, spending between 2% and 2.2% of GDP on defense over the past 10 years.

Chu Thanh

According to Le Monde April 13