Azernews.Az

BAKU – Azerbaijan has been spending more on its military than Armenia and Georgia, the two neighboring South Caucasus republics, over the past decade, a leading think tank has said in its report on 2010.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said the difference in military spending is rising as well. Last year, Azerbaijan spent $1.5 billion on arms purchases, compared to Armenia’s $422 million and Georgia’s $454 million.

Nonetheless, according to the 2009 figures Georgia is spending the biggest share of the gross domestic product on defense. The country’s military spending accounted for 5.6 percent of the GDP, while Armenia is spending 4.2 percent, and Azerbaijan only 3.4 percent, according to SIPRI, which conducts independent research on international security, armaments and disarmament.

Azerbaijan faces a long-standing conflict with neighboring Armenia. Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory since a war in the early 1990s. Baku has repeatedly warned that the occupied land will be freed at any cost.

The report said that world military spending reached over $1.6 trillion in 2010, an increase of 1.3 pct over 2009. However, the global increase in military spending is the slowest annual rate of increase since the surge in global military expenditure began after 2001. Between 2001 and 2009, the annual increase averaged 5.1 pct.

In many cases, the falls or slower increases represent a delayed reaction to the global financial and economic crisis that broke in 2008, the report said.

The region with the largest increase in military spending was South America. The regional countries’ spending increased 5.8 pct, reaching a total of $63.3 billion, despite the lack of real military threats to most states, according to SIPRI.

Part of the explanation for this rise is to be found in the strong economic growth the region has experienced in recent years, while in other regions the effects of the global economic recession caused military spending to fall or at least rise more slowly in 2010.

The Middle East spent $111 billion on military expenditure in 2010, an increase of 2.5 pct over 2009. The largest absolute rise in the region was by Saudi Arabia.

In Europe, where military spending fell by 2.8 pct, governments began to address soaring budget deficits, having previously enacted stimulus packages in 2009. Cuts were particularly substantial in the smaller, more vulnerable economies of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as those with particular budget difficulties such as Greece.

In Asia, even though most economies did not experience a recession, economic growth slowed down in 2009 while military spending continued to rise rapidly. Thus, the slower increase of 1.4 pct in military spending in 2010 partly readjusts growth in military spending to economic growth rates. The Chinese government, for example, explicitly linked its smaller increase in 2010 to China’s weaker economic performance in 2009.

Estimated spending in Africa increased by 5.2 pct, led by major oil-producers such as Algeria, Angola and Nigeria, SIPRI concluded.

The United States remained "exceptional" in military spending, which made up $700 billion last year. Although the rate of increase in US military spending slowed in 2010 - to 2.8 pct compared to an annual average increase of 7.4 pct between 2001 and 2009, the global increase in 2010 is almost entirely down to the U.S., which accounted for $19.6bn of the $20.6bn global increase.

"The USA has increased its military spending by 81 pct since 2001, and now accounts for 43 pct of the global total, six times its nearest rival China," said Dr Sam Perlo-Freeman, head of the SIPRI Military Expenditure Project.