Source: United Nations (video statements)
Press Conference: Launch of the UN Secretary-General’s report – The Security We Need: Rebalancing Military Spending for a Sustainable and Peaceful Future.
———————————————
“The world is spending far more on waging war than on building peace,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said as he presented a new report showing global military expenditure hit a record $2.7 trillion in 2024, soaring by more than nine per cent from 2023 and signaling a dangerous move away from the principles of the UN Charter.
That is “the equivalent of $334 for every person on Earth,” Guterres told reporters at UN headquarters. “That is nearly thirteen times the amount of official development assistance from the world’s wealthiest nations – and 750 times the regular budget of the United Nations.”
The report, ‘The Security We Need: Rebalancing Military Spending for a Sustainable and Peaceful Future,’ warns that soaring defense budgets are diverting resources from education, healthcare, and climate resilience at a time when only one in five Sustainable Development Goal targets is on track.
“Our shared promise of sustainable development is in jeopardy,” Guterres said. “The financing gap is growing – and so is the cost of inaction.”
He said the report carries three urgent messages: that the current trajectory is unsustainable, that a better path is possible, and that practical steps are needed to rebalance priorities. “Budgets are choices,” Guterres noted. “Redirecting even a fraction of today’s military spending could close vital gaps – putting children in school, strengthening primary health care, expanding clean energy and resilient infrastructure, and protecting the most vulnerable.”
“The evidence is clear,” he added. “Excessive military spending does not guarantee peace. It often undermines it – fueling arms races, deepening mistrust, and diverting resources from the very foundations of stability.”
Izumi Nakamitsu, the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, said reversing the trend requires recommitting to multilateralism and diplomacy and warned of rising risks. “All nuclear weapon states have been investing huge amounts of money to modernize their nuclear arsenals, and soon, or we might already be in quantitative nuclear arms race starting,” she said. “There is also the rhetoric, or, in our view, misperception that nuclear weapons actually give the ultimate security, which is also causing yet another additional proliferation driver.”
UNDP Acting Administrator Haoliang Xu said the gains of recent decades are at risk. “The human growth that we have achieved over the last few decades will possibly decline. So, what happens from here, is up to us,” he said, urging a shift towards a people-centered and multi-dimensional approach to security.
The Secretary-General’s report projects global military spending could rise to $6.6 trillion by 2035 if current trends continue, further widening the $4 trillion annual financing gap needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.