Saudi Arabia replaced Russia last year as the country with the third-highest military spending in the world, a Swedish research institute has said.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimated on April 5 that global military spending rose by 1 percent in 2015 to $1.67 trillion, the first worldwide increase since 2011.
As in past years, the United States and China topped the list of big military spenders, with $596 billion and $215 billion military budgets, respectively. The United States alone accounted for more than a third of global spending.
But Saudi Arabia, which has been backing the Yemeni government in a war with rebels while providing support to rebels in Syria, surged into third place for the first time with its $87.2 billion budget.
Russia's spending also increased substantially by 7.5 percent to $66 billion, fueled by an air-strike campaign backing the Syrian government and a military buildup on its western border with Europe.
Over the last 10 years, Saudi Arabia's military budget nearly doubled by 97 percent, while Russia's budget was up by 91 percent.
