Morocco plans to increase defence spending by almost a fifth in the coming year, amid tensions with neighbouring Algeria.
The draft budget submitted to the parliament on Monday allocates 157 billion dirhams (US$17.1 billion) towards defence in 2026, up 18 percent from the year before.
The kingdom has moved to bolster its military and security capabilities over the past decade.
Spending has risen every year over the past seven years, increasing almost 40 percent from 96.7 billion dirhams (US$10.4 billion) in 2019.
A recent report by US thinktank the International Institute for Strategic Studies revealed a marked increase in Morocco's defence spending, which reached 4.2 percent of GDP.
Morocco has tried to diversify its arms suppliers and military partners around the world in recent years.
Like other countries in the region, it has moved to lessen its dependency on Western countries by signing deals with other countries such as China, India, Turkey, Brazil and Pakistan.
Observers believe that poor relations with Algeria as well as security threats in the region have driven Morocco to pursue a strategy based on acquiring advanced weapons, increasing domestic military production, and reducing dependency on certain partners.
This comes a few weeks after Morocco's regional rival Algeria announced it would allocate a quarter of public spending to defence in 2026.
Algiers has significantly upped its defence spendint in recent years, and plans to allocate around $24 billion to its defence needs in the coming year.
Algeria is the second-largest defence spender in the world when measured as a proportion of GDP, according to IISS.
Adel Negdi, Morocco correspondent for Al Araby Al Jadeed.