In the Middle East, Gulf states are again shopping heavily in the arms bazaar.Ĭhina’s defence budget has grown by about 75% in real terms in the past ten years. In the past decade India’s defence budget has grown by about 50% in real terms, as has Pakistan’s. Under the AUKUS deal, America and Britain will help supply Australia with nuclear-powered submarines they will also aim to develop other weapons, including hypersonic missiles. Taiwan is extending military service from four months to a year. France speaks of shifting to a “war economy".Īn arms race is intensifying on the other side of the globe, too. Poland aims to reach 4% this year, and eventually to double the size of its army. The club now says this should be “a floor, not a ceiling", a notion that is likely to be enshrined at its summit in Lithuania in July. The number of NATO countries hitting the 2% target rose from three in 2014 to seven last year. Soon it will start training Ukrainian pilots to fly American-made F-16 fighter jets. It has equipped the best part of nine new armoured brigades with modern battle tanks and more besides. The West is sending ever more weapons, of ever growing sophistication, in order to help Ukraine launch a counter-offensive against Russia. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “risks wiping out the peace dividend we have enjoyed for the past three decades", declared Kristalina Georgieva, the head of the IMF, in a speech in April.
0 kommentar(er)
