SIPRI: Turkey's military expenditures decreased in 2020

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Turkey's military expenditures decreased by five percent in 2020 compared to the previous year, according to the annual report of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

The country stood at 16th out of 40 countries with a military expenditure of 17.7 billion dollars in the 2020 index.

However, SIPRI noted that this was an exception as Turkey's military expenditures increased by 77 percent in the last decade. "The Growth became steeper from 2015, coinciding with an increasingly assertive Turkish foreign policy," says the report.

Globally, military expenditure rose to $1981 billion last year, an increase of 2.6 percent in real terms from 2019.

The US, which is the largest military spender in the world, accounted for 39 percent of total military expenditure in 2020. This was the third consecutive year of growth in US military spending, following seven years of continuous reductions. (HA/VK)