A new report published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) shows that Turkey spent $15.8 billion on military expenses in 2023, positioning it as the 22nd highest spender on military expenses worldwide.
According to the report, Turkey’s military expenditure surged by 37 percent since 2022 and 59 percent since 2014, while its share of world spending on military expenses last year was 0.6 percent.
The country spent 1.5 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on military expenses in 2023.
The report also revealed that world military expenditure increased for the ninth consecutive year in 2023, reaching a total of $2.4 trillion. The 6.8 percent increase last year was the steepest year-on-year surge since 2009 and pushed global spending to the highest level SIPRI has ever recorded, the institute said.
The US remained by far the largest military spender in the world with $916 billion in 2023, followed by China ($296 billion), Russia ($109 billion), India ($83.6 billion) and Saudi Arabia ($75.8 billion).
The rise in global military spending in 2023 can be attributed primarily to the ongoing war in Ukraine and escalating geopolitical tensions in Asia, Oceania and the Middle East, the report said, adding that major military spending increases were recorded in Europe, Asia and Oceania and the Middle East.
Military expenditure in the Middle East rose by 9.0 percent – the biggest annual increase in the years 2014 to 2023 – to an estimated $200 billion in 2023, according to the report, with spending going up in the three largest military spenders in the region: Saudi Arabia, Israel and Turkey.
The Turkish government says it is working to reduce Turkey’s dependence on foreign countries for arms and military equipment by investing more in the national defense industry, which has boomed over the past years. Turkey is now one of the world’s main exporters of armed drones.
Drones developed by Turkish defense contractor Baykar, whose chairman Selçuk Bayraktar is the son-in-law of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, have been exported to at least 30 countries and have been used in conflicts in Azerbaijan and Libya in addition to Ukraine. Many say the company owes its success to Erdoğan, who personally promotes Baykar drones during his visits to foreign countries, as a result of which agreements worth of millions of dollars are signed.
SIPRI is an independent international institute dedicated to research into conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament. Established in 1966, SIPRI provides data, analysis and recommendations, based on open sources, to policymakers, researchers, media and the interested public.