China's military spending has grown so fast in the past decade that it has surpassed the combined defence budgets of France, Britain, Russia and Japan, according to a new report.

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The military budget of China at $228 billion eclipsed the entire defence budgets of Russia ($66.3 billion), France ($57.8 billion), Britain ($47.2 billion) and Japan ($45.4 billion), said the study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) published on Wednesday.

Only the US at $610 billion has a bigger defence budget than China.

China's allocation to its military in 2017 increased 5.6% from a year ago, according to the report.

India is one of the world’s five biggest military spenders as defence experts see the pendulum of military spending moving further towards Asia.

India’s defence spending increased by 5.5% to $63.9 billion in 2017 and it leapfrogged France in the expenditure ranking.

Overall, global military spending rose by 1.1% to $1,739 billion in 2017, the highest since the end of the Cold War, according to SIPRI.

First Published:May 14, 2018 9:10 PM IST