World military spending went up again last year to a record high of $2.2 trillion, EU High Representative of the Union of Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell said in a statement.

“One may believe that this is because [of] Russia’s war against Ukraine. Certainly, the military expenditure in countries in Europe is 30% higher than in 2013, before the takeover of Crimea by Russia.

And across Asia the trend of increasing military expenditure is even greater. Last year, the military expenditure in Asia and Oceania was 45% higher than in 2013. In ten years, we have increased our military expenditure by 30% and by 45%. This shows that every day we live in a more insecure world.

But we [Europe] have vital interests in the stability and prosperity. We have vital and common interests in our prosperity and security.
Unhappily, Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is keeping us very busy, consuming a lot of our energies, but it is not ‘just a European war’. The principles at stake affect everyone. And it clearly has global consequences in terms of food and energy prices for almost all human beings. So, we all have a clear stake in each other’s security,” Borrell’s statement says.