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STORY: UN / MILITARY SPENDING REPORT
TRT: 04:54
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 09 SEPTEMBER 2025, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, United Nations headquarters
09 SEPTEMBER 2025, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, journalists in the press briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“The world is spending far more on waging war than on building peace. In 2024, global military spending surged to a record $2.7 trillion– the equivalent of $334 for every person on Earth. 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.”
4. Wide shot, journalists in the press briefing room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“At the same time, our shared promise of sustainable development is in jeopardy. Only one in five Sustainable Development Goal targets is on track. The financing gap is growing – and so is the cost of inaction.”
6. Wide shot, journalists in the press briefing room
7. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“My report – requested under the Pact for the Future – is a call to action. A call to rethink priorities. A call to rebalance global investments toward the security the world truly needs. It delivers three urgent messages: First, the current trajectory is unsustainable. Around the world, soaring military expenditures are adding pressure to what was already a strained financial context – crowding out essential investments in health, education, job creation, protecting people from droughts and floods, and expanding opportunities for women and young people. Investing in people is investing in the first line of defense against violence in any society.”
8. Wide shot, journalists in the press briefing room
9. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Second, a better path is within reach. Budgets are choices. 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.”
10. Wide shot, journalists in the press briefing room
11. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Third, we need practical steps to rebalance. By putting diplomacy first. And ensuring transparency and accountability in defence budgets while boosting financing for development.”
12. Wide shot, journalists in the press briefing room
13. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“The evidence is clear: 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. A more secure world begins by investing at least as much in fighting poverty as we do in fighting wars.”
14. Wide shot, journalists in the press briefing room
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Izumi Nakamitsu, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, United Nations:
“The challenge before us is not to merely reverse the trend of escalating military spending and shrinking development finance, but to recommit to multinationalism and diplomacy. We must integrate peace and development agendas and recalibrate global financial priorities, and this report urges member states to act with foresight and resolve.”
16. Wide shot, journalists in the press briefing room
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Haoliang Xu, Acting Administrator, UN Development Programme (UNDP):
“The human growth that we have achieved over the last few decades will possibly decline. So, what happens from here, is up to us. So, we joined the Secretary-General, the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, and other leaders, in calling for a shift towards a people-centered and multi-dimensional approach to security.”
18. Wide shot, journalists in the press briefing room
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Izumi Nakamitsu, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, United Nations:
“For a while, we have already been saying that there has been qualitative nuclear arms race, meaning that 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. So definitely concern is there. I'm very much concerned about that, many member states are really concerned about that. 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 drivers, if you will.”
20. Wide shot, end of press briefing
“The world is spending far more on waging war than on building peace,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said Tuesday 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.
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