Suriname - Military Spending

Suriname's military spending is poorly characterized in the open literature. In recent years it appears to have been about $460,000,000 annually. As of 2004 CIA estimated military expenditure at 0.7 percent of GDP, and 0.6 percent of GDP after 2007. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute provided no data for Suriname military spending.

Suriname’s current government — led by former army leader-turned-president Col. Dési Bouterse, inaugurated in August 2010 — is spending considerable resources to beef up the country’s armed forces, in contrast to his predecessor, Ronald Venetianne.

In May 2013 Suriname has announced the $2.4 million purchase of 75 armored and luxury vehicles for the nation’s army, police, customs and intelligence departments. “When this government was sworn in, we encountered an outdated, ragtag fleet of vehicles for the departments charged with security services,” said Melvin Linscheer, director of national security. “There was nothing; no boats, no aircraft, not even cars that work properly. And meanwhile, more than 150 known criminals are walking around free. So we purchased these cars and we’ll also be purchasing helicopters soon.”

On January 25, 2017, Suriname’s ambassador to the United Nations, Henry MacDonald, joined with the permanent missions of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in calling for a portion of military spending to be channeled into financing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG). In jointly organizing a meeting entitled “Responsible Governance, Disarmament and Non-Proliferation for Progress and Sustainable Development”, the primary objective of the “brainstorming session” was to identify how to help shape the financing of the UNSDGs for the remaining 14 years, in tandem with collective defence spending.

According to the World Bank, military expenditures data from SIPRI are derived from the NATO definition, which includes all current and capital expenditures on the armed forces, including peacekeeping forces; defense ministries and other government agencies engaged in defense projects; paramilitary forces, if these are judged to be trained and equipped for military operations; and military space activities. Such expenditures include military and civil personnel, including retirement pensions of military personnel and social services for personnel; operation and maintenance; procurement; military research and development; and military aid (in the military expenditures of the donor country).

Excluded are civil defense and current expenditures for previous military activities, such as for veterans' benefits, demobilization, conversion, and destruction of weapons. This definition cannot be applied for all countries, however, since that would require much more detailed information than is available about what is included in military budgets and off-budget military expenditure items. (For example, military budgets might or might not cover civil defense, reserves and auxiliary forces, police and paramilitary forces, dual-purpose forces such as military and civilian police, military grants in kind, pensions for military personnel, and social security contributions paid by one part of government to another.)

NATO defines defense expenditure as payments made by a national government specifically to meet the needs of its armed forces or those of Allies. A major component of defense expenditure is payments on Armed Forces financed within the Ministry of Defense (MoD) budget. Armed Forces include Land, Maritime and Air forces as well as Joint formations such as Administration and Command, Special Operations Forces, Medical Service, Logistic Command etc. In view of the differences between the NATO and national definitions, the figures shown may diverge considerably from those which are quoted by national authorities or given in national budgets.

They might also include "Other Forces" like Ministry of Interior troops, border guards, national police forces, customs, gendarmerie, carabinierie, coast guards etc. In such cases, expenditure should be included only in proportion to the forces that are trained in military tactics, are equipped as a military force, can operate under direct military authority in deployed operations, and can, realistically, be deployed outside national territory in support of a military force. Also, expenditure on Other Forces financed through the budgets of ministries other than MoD should be included in defense expenditure.

Pension payments made directly by the government to retired military and civilian employees of military departments should be included regardless of whether these payments are made from the budget of the MoD or other ministries. Expenditures for peacekeeping and humanitarian operations (paid by MoD or other ministries), the destruction of weapons, equipment and ammunition, and the costs associated with inspection and control of equipment destruction are included in defense expenditures.

Research and development (R&D) costs are to be included in defense expenditures. R&D costs should also include those for projects that do not successfully lead to production of equipment. Expenditure for the military component of mixed civilian-military activities is included, but only when this military component can be specifically accounted for or estimated. Financial assistance by one Allied country to another, specifically to support the defense effort of the recipient, should be included in the defense expenditure of the donor country and not in the defense expenditure of the receiving country. War damage payments and spending on civil defense are both excluded from the NATO definition of defense expenditure.