Sputnik: Are we seeing different countries spending more? Is the distribution of funds spent the same as it has been or are we seeing an upsurge in certain regions and countries?
Siemon Wezeman: No we see certain differences. There are regions were the totals go down and many countries go down, for example Africa and Latin America are places where military spending is going down.
There are also places and countries where military spending definitely goes up. Asia, East Asia is one region where military spending goes up. China is increasing, and also other countries there are increasing, often as reaction to the Chinese increases. And there is the Middle East, which is a bit of a yo-yo movement there. Sometimes it goes up very strongly, and then it goes down again when the oil prices go down.
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Then in 2017 again we see a substantial increase of more than 6% compared to the year before. Saudi Arabia is now the third largest military spender in the world, because it has increased its military expenditures substantially in 2017.
Sputnik: Another interesting situation is that many of the EU countries have increased their military spending. Some would say this is to counter a threat from Russia. The study interestingly enough shows that Russia has in fact decreased its military expenditures. What are your thoughts on that?
Siemon Wezeman: Until 2017 Russia has increased military spending. Then, of course, other countries in the region react to that. Now in 2017 Russia has substantially decreased, about 20 percent decrease, in military spending, mainly due to economic pressure.
It's also important to keep in mind for NATO countries and EU countries, when they talk about threats and threats from Russia, that Russian military spending is about a third or even less of total NATO spending in Europe, which is 10% or less of total NATO spending. So keep that in mind when you think about the "Russian threats."
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Of course, military spending input thing — you have to do something with it. And then, of course the behavior of countries and the behavior of that government, which makes the feeling of threat. And then of course European countries look at Russia and see what it has done over the past few years in its neighborhood and that's the thing they mainly feel threatened about.
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But they have to keep in mind that Russia isn't that enormous big monstrous military power that the Soviet Union used to be. And it's a lot smaller and that is reflected in its military spending.
Sputnik: What can you say is the significance of this report and by looking at it what do you think we can understand about the geopolitical situation in the world?
Siemon Wezeman: Well, in very simple terms, the situation in the world hasn't grown safer. Countries feel the need for substantial spending on their military; spending right now higher than in the last years of the Cold War, a bit higher in constant terms, excluding the whole inflation idea.
It clearly indicates that many countries do not feel very safe. They look at the neighbor, at the neighbors of their neighbors, look at the region and they feel that there are serious threats. That is worrying.
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Suddenly when you look at some of the regions of the Middle East, not only conflicts but high spending; lots of weapons being bought. And that is worrying because there aren't many systems to discuss the tensions, the problems between countries. We hope that they solve them in a peaceful way, but everybody is ready to, if necessary, to defend their interests with military means.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.