China, India power rise in global military expenditure in 2017: Report

According to SIPRI - an independent body - China's tension with several of its neighbours is a major cause for increase in military expenditures.

Despite a fall in Russia's military expenditure in 2017, the year saw an overall rise of 1.1 percent compared to the previous year - courtesy big spendings by countries like China, India and Saudi Arabia.

A report published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has revealed that both China and India continue to power the global expenditure on the military. The overall rise in global military expenditure in the year 2017 rose to $1739 billion at a time when Russia reduced its share and the United States remained constant. According to SIPRI, China has a major share in the figure and increased its spendings by 5.6 percent to $228 billion. India too increased spendings by 5.5 percent to $63.9 billion - compared to year 2016. The report also noted that the tensions between China and several of its neighbours is fuelling a rise in global arms trade even though the traditional giants like Russia and the United States have not shown any remarkable change in spendings.

SIPRI, however, did highlight that the United States remains the country with the largest military expenditure - by far. The country - at $610 million - spent more in the year 2017 than the next seven countries in the list combined.The report also predicted that the country will see a significant rise in spendings in 2018.

SIPRI is an independent institute which conducts research on global security, conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament. It refers to military expenditure as a a total of all expenses incurred by governments for its forces and activities, and that arms spendings is only a part and not whole of it.