NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg said during his recent visit to the United States that military spending by NATO European members and Canada will increase by 18% this year, the largest increase in decades. Twenty-three of NATO's 32 member states have met their military spending targets this year, which means reaching or exceeding 2% of their gross domestic product (GDP).

Behind the surge in NATO military spending, US military-industrial enterprises have made a fortune, while US allies have to bear a heavy economic burden. NATO's attempt to seek its own "absolute security" by significantly expanding its military power fully exposes the stubborn Cold War mentality of the United States and other Western countries, which will only lead to further intensification of conflicts between countries and worsening of regional security situations, thus threatening world peace and stability.

NATO's military expenditure data from 2014 to 2024 show that NATO's total military expenditure in 2024 will reach 1.185 trillion U.S. dollars, an increase of 10.9% over 2023 and more than 30% compared with 10 years ago. The number of countries that "meet the target" for military expenditure has set a record, almost four times the data in 2021.

Stoltenberg said in a speech at the Wilson Center, a U.S. think tank, that European countries are contributing more to NATO's collective defense than in previous years, "which is good for both European countries and the United States," and most of the additional military spending will be used to purchase more military equipment from the United States.

Croatian military expert Malinko Ogorec pointed out that the United States is the world's largest exporter of military equipment. In the past two years, two-thirds of NATO's military procurement was carried out with American companies, with a total amount of up to 140 billion US dollars. Therefore, the beneficiaries of NATO's ever-expanding military spending are American military-industrial enterprises.

The first quarter financial report of 2024 released by the US military giant Raytheon showed that the company's sales in the first quarter reached US$19.3 billion, an increase of 12% over the same period last year, and its net income was US$1.7 billion, an increase of 20% over the same period last year. Undelivered orders reached a record high of US$202 billion. Lockheed Martin's sales in the first quarter were US$17.2 billion, an increase of 14% over the same period last year.

According to a report by France's Euronews, many Europeans believe that transferring a large amount of resources to the defense sector will cause key social and economic needs to be neglected, leading to increased domestic instability. A report released by the European Center for Economic and Fiscal Policy Research pointed out that the economic pressure brought about by increased military spending will undermine the social welfare system, weaken public investment in key areas, and may lead to public dissatisfaction and social unrest, which will have a huge negative impact on the internal security and stability of European countries.

Ogorec believes that NATO's increasing defense spending and repeated large-scale military exercises are aimed at Russia. NATO is getting more and more deeply and directly involved in the Ukrainian crisis, which makes it more and more likely that NATO will have a head-on conflict with Russia. NATO's increasing defense spending will not bring real peace, but will only lead to a further deterioration of the security situation in Europe. NATO held the "Resolute Defender 2024" military exercise. This is NATO's largest military exercise since the end of the Cold War, with a total of about 90,000 soldiers from 32 NATO member states participating. NATO said that the military exercise is intended to "demonstrate NATO's ability to conduct and maintain complex multi-domain operations under any conditions from Northern Europe to Central and Eastern Europe, over a period of months and across thousands of kilometers."

Bogomir Felfila, a Slovenian political economist, pointed out that some people think that more military spending means more security, which is a misunderstanding of the "security dilemma" and completely ignores the real reason for the deterioration of NATO-Russia relations. At present, some Westerners have realized that the main reason for the Russia-Ukraine conflict is NATO's continuous expansion to the Russian border. He said: "Real security is shared. Security cannot be achieved through unilateral arming, because this will lead to similar actions by other countries."