Countries have increased their military spending worldwide by 2.6 percent in 2020, during a year of economic challenges due to the coronavirus outbreak, according to a report.
“We can say with some certainty that the pandemic did not have a significant impact on global military spending in 2020,” Diego Lopes de Silva, a researcher with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s Arms and Military Expenditure Program, said, according to DW. “It remains to be seen whether countries will maintain this level of military spending through a second year of the pandemic.”
The report said total military spending rose to nearly $2 trillion. Its share of the GDP expenditures rose to 2.4 percent, which marks the biggest jump since 2009, the DW report said. The report pointed out that the U.S., China, India, and Russia were the top four countries in military expenditures and amounted to 62 percent of the world’s total.
The U.S. remained the top spender, and, in 2020, it increased its military expenditures by 4.4 percent to $778 billion.
TRENDPOST: These findings were barely reported in the mainstream media. While much of the world’s population suffers from the destruction of the COVID War, which has destroyed lives and livelihoods of billions, politicians keep stealing more of We the People’s money to enrich the military-industrial complex.
Do you want to help reverse the trend? Join us on May 29 at our “Unite for Freedom, Peace & Justice” rally in Kingston, New York, and please donate what you can in the name of Peace.
