The rise of China as a pre-eminent world power to challenge the superiority of the United States has led to the focus of military and geo-political concerns centring even more on the Indo-Pacific.Military spending in the region has also increased significantly as a result. In its most recent report Trends in World Military Spending 2020, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) found that of the total of $1.9 billion of military spending in 2020 about $528 million was from the Indo-Pacific region, representing 27 percent of the world's share - second only to the United States.It also showed that military spending in the region is 2.9 percent higher than in 2019 and 47 percent higher than 10 years previously in 2011, highlighting the impact of power politics over the last decade. But the Indo-Pacific region is divided between rich and poor states. The most rapid and advanced military modernisation has taken place in the People's Republic of China, India, Japan, South Korea and Australia, which are also leaders in naval modernisation alongside the Republic of China (Taiwan), which has also embarked on the enhancement of its naval capabilities. It is in the sub-region of North East Asia where naval technological development has been viewed as urgent because it is these countries where the pressures of responding to China's naval expansion and a belligerent North Korea are most acute.
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