Sipri data shows that India’s neighbours such as China, the world’s second-largest military spender, increased its spending by 7.4% to $336 billion
India was the fifth-biggest military spender in the world in 2025—after the United States, China, Russia and Germany—accounting for 3.2% of the global military expenditure last year, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) said in a report published on Monday.
India’s military spending stood at $92.1 billion last year, an 8.9% increase over the previous year, according to the report. When India launched Operation Sindoor against Pakistan last year, the armed forces made a raft of emergency procurements to stay battle-ready.
Sipri data shows India’s neighbours also increased their military spending: China, the world’s second-largest military spender, increased its spending by 7.4% to $336 billion; Pakistan’s military spending increased by 11% to $11.9 billion and it was the 31st-biggest spender among the 40 countries listed.
The top three military spenders—the USA, China and Russia—spent a combined $1,480 billion, or 51% of the global total, the report said, adding that global military expenditure increased to $2,887 billion in 2025. “The main contributor to the global increase in military spending in 2025 was a 14% rise in Europe to $864 billion. Spending by Russia and Ukraine continued to grow in the fourth year of the war in Ukraine, while ongoing rearmament efforts by European NATO members led to the sharpest annual growth in spending in Central and Western Europe since the end of the Cold War,” the report said.
The latest report comes at a time when India’s arms imports have recorded a decrease.
India’s arms imports fell 4% between 2016-20 and 2021-25, but the country remains the world’s second largest importer of military hardware, accounting for 8.2% of global weapon imports, said a Sipri report published in March.
India’s arms imports are driven by its tensions with China and Pakistan, said the report on “Trends in International Arms Transfers.”
Over the past decade, India has shifted its arms relations away from Russia towards Western suppliers, especially France, Israel and the United States, said the March report, which compared data over two five-year periods. “The largest share of Indian arms imports during 2021-25 came from Russia, at 40%—a significantly smaller share than in 2016-20 (51%) and almost half of that in 2011-15 (70%). India is increasingly turning to Western suppliers.”
