Military spending in Europe will again exceed the level reached at the end of the Cold War in 2022, according to a background report published on Monday, with the highest growth in three decades, boosted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, AFP reported. .

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), military spending on all continents combined reached a new peak last year at $2.24 trillion, or 2.2 percent of global GDP.

This is the eighth consecutive year of increased investment in the armed forces worldwide. They are attracted by the war in Ukraine, which is increasing European budgets, as well as unresolved and growing tensions in East Asia” between China and the United States and its Asian allies on the one hand, said researcher Nan Tian, ​​one of the study’s co-authors, to AFP. .

After falling inflation, Europe spent 13% more on its military in the year marked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to the report. That’s both the strongest growth in 30 years and a return — in constant dollars — to spending levels since 1989, the year the Berlin Wall came down. “This hasn’t happened since the end of the Cold War,” Tian said.

Ukraine alone has increased its spending sevenfold, reaching $44 billion, a third of GDP, not including tens of billions in arms donations from abroad, SIPRI states. Russia’s spending increased by 9.2%, according to the institute.

“But even if you remove the two conflicting countries, costs in Europe have increased significantly,” Tien said. This European spending, which will reach $480 billion in 2022, has already increased by more than a third in ten years, and the trend is expected to continue to accelerate in the next decade. SIPRI researchers estimate that we could “potentially” see growth levels similar to 2022 for several years.

After a sharp decline in the 1990s, global military spending has increased since the 2000s. This was initially driven by China’s heavy investment in its military and then by renewed tensions with Russia following the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

The United States alone accounted for 39% of global spending last year. Together with China, which ranks second with 13%, the two countries account for more than half of global military investment. It is followed by Russia (3.9%), India (3.6%) and Saudi Arabia (3.3%).

“China is investing heavily in its naval forces to increase its range in the direction of Taiwan, obviously, and beyond the South China Sea,” Tian said. Japan, as well as Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Australia are trying to keep up.

The United Kingdom is the top European country in terms of military spending, ranking sixth (with 3.1% of the world total) ahead of Germany (2.5%) and France (2.4%), figures that include donations to Ukraine.

Britain, the second-largest donor after the United States, “has traditionally spent more than Germany and France and donated more than Germany and France,” Tian points out, highlighting Europe’s top nation in terms of military spending.

In Europe, countries such as Poland, the Netherlands and Sweden are among the countries that have increased their military investments the most over the past decade.

Modern but very expensive weapons, such as the US F-35 fighter jet, also explain some of the spikes in costs, as in the case of Finland, which bought 64 jets last year.

Last month, another SIPRI report showed that arms imports to Europe almost doubled (+93%) in 2022 as a result of massive shipments to Ukraine, the world’s third largest destination.