Türkiye’s military spending rises 7 percent to $30 billion in 2025

ISTANBUL

Türkiye’s military expenditure reached $30 billion in 2025, an increase of 7.2 per cent from 2024 and of 94 per cent from 2016, ranking among the world’s top 40 spenders, according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on April 27.

The change in Türkiye’s military expenditure between 2016 to 2025 was 94 percent, showed the report.

The country ranked 18th globally in terms of military spending last year, unchanged from 2024. The country’s share in the world’s total spending was 1 percent as of 2025.

Türkiye’s military spending as of its gross domestic product (GDP) was 1.9 percent last year, declining slightly from 2 percent in 2016, according to the SIPRI report.

Allocations to the special fund to support the Turkish arms industry rose by 25 per cent year-on-year and accounted for 22 per cent of Türkiye’s total military expenditure in 2025, the report said.

Global military spending reached nearly $2.9 trillion in 2025, marking an 11th consecutive year of growth, as insecurity and rearmament fueled defense budgets, it added.

The three top spenders, the United States, China and Russia, spent a combined total of $1.48 trillion, just over half of global expenditure.

Spending rose by 2.9 percent compared with 2024, despite a reduction by the U.S., the world's biggest spender.

The U.S. spent $954 billion, 7.5 percent less than in 2024, largely because no new financial military aid to Ukraine was approved. By contrast, Washington pledged a total of $127 billion to Kiev over the previous three years.

China, which has been increasing its spending every year for the past three decades, spent an estimated $336 billion in 2025.

The main driver of the global increase was Europe, including Russia and Ukraine, where spending surged 14 percent to $864 billion.

Germany, the fourth-largest spender, raised expenditure by 24 percent in 2025 to $114 billion.

Russia's spending rose 5.9 percent to $190 billion, equivalent to 7.5 percent of GDP.

Ukraine, meanwhile, boosted spending by 20 percent to $84.1 billion, a staggering 40 percent of GDP.

Despite persistent tensions in the Middle East, expenditure in the region rose only marginally, by 0.1 percent, to $218 billion.

In Iran, it fell 5.6 percent to $7.4 billion, but this was mostly due to high annual inflation of 42 percent. In nominal terms, spending actually rose.

Israel's 4.9 percent drop to $48.3 billion reflected a reduced intensity in the Gaza war after a January 2025 ceasefire deal, SIPRI researchers explained, while noting Israeli spending was still 97 percent higher than in 2022.

Japan raised military expenditure by 9.7 percent, to $62.2 billion in 2025, equivalent to 1.4 percent of GDP, its highest share since 1958, while Taiwan increased its spending by 14 percent to $18.2 billion.