With $92.1 billion in expenditure, India was the world’s fifth-largest military spender in 2025, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) stated in its Yearbook 2026 released on Monday. India’s military spending jumped 8.9 per cent last year from 2024, the report added.
SIPRI also stated that India was the world’s second-largest arms importer from 2021 to 2025, accounting for 8.2 per cent of global imports.
India continued to expand its nuclear arsenal in 2025, and by January 2026, it had about 190 nuclear warheads, SIPRI added. The yearbook also estimated that India had deployed 12 nuclear warheads last year, suggesting a gradual increase in the operational readiness of its nuclear arsenal.
According to the report, this is the first time India’s arsenal has been categorised as operationally deployed rather than entirely stockpiled, suggesting a gradual shift from New Delhi’s long-held practice of keeping nuclear warheads and delivery systems stored separately in peacetime.
“India is believed to have once again slightly expanded its nuclear arsenal in 2025 and continued development of new types of nuclear delivery systems,” the SIPRI report stated, adding that the modernisation programme “is increasingly focused on developing long-range weapons capable of reaching targets throughout China, although planning also continues to be focused on India’s long-standing rivalry with Pakistan.”
Agni-V and China deterrence
“With the potential to further develop the Agni as an intercontinental-range ballistic missile, India will acquire the ability to hold at risk the entirety of China’s territory, giving it deterrence parity but not numerical or overall strategic parity with China, as well as significantly complicating the China–India–Pakistan nuclear balance,” the yearbook stated.
India-Pakistan tensions and regional instability
SIPRI noted that Asia and Oceania continued to witness intensifying strategic competition, military build-ups and domestic instability in 2025, with several regional flashpoints remaining at risk of escalating into major interstate conflicts.
The report cited the India–Pakistan military crisis in May 2025 as an example of rising regional tensions. It -also noted that India and Pakistan integrated cyber operations into armed conflict for the first time during the confrontation, reflecting the growing role of emerging technologies in regional warfare.
The yearbook further pointed out that India, Pakistan and Israel continue to remain outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) framework as nuclear-armed states.
SIPRI further noted that submarine-based nuclear delivery systems were proliferating, “especially in the four nuclear-armed states in the Indo-Pacific”, including India, reflecting the growing focus on sea-based deterrence in the region.
