Vilnius, 10 July 2023 (dpa/MIA) – NATO countries approved new plans on Monday on how to respond to a potential attack by Russia or a terrorist organization on the territories of the Western military alliance, several diplomats told dpa.

The plans - which are to be endorsed by NATO leaders gathering in Vilnius on Tuesday and Wednesday - detail how to quickly boost troop presences on the ground and how to defend potential maritime, air, cyber, and space attacks.

The so-called regional defence plans lay out not only how "to provide the required forces and capabilities in the most effective way," NATO's website says, but also a command structure.

The latest move follows last year's decision to keep around 300,000 on high standby in the future. Up to now, NATO's high-readiness troops have been the main force for rapid crisis operations with member states currently providing around 40,000 soldiers.

Changes to the rapid response force and other responses to Russian threats "constitute the biggest overhaul of our collective defence and deterrence since the Cold War," NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg said at the time.

The new defence protocols are part of NATO efforts of the past years to strengthen the alliance’s defence and deterrence capacities, exacerbated by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Executing the plans will be the task for the years to come, Admiral Rob Bauer, chairman of NATO's military committee, said previously.

The defence protocols go hand in hand with efforts to increase defence investments, rearm and step up arms production in the alliance to accommodate higher troop numbers and effectiveness.

"This is about more people recruiting, training, this is about exercising. This is about building stocks, again, this is about building formations, buying equipment, we're also talking about production capacity discussion again," Bauer told journalists in Brussels in prepared remarks.

"This is a road from where we are now to where we need to go," he added.

In addition to possible attacks by Russia, threats by terrorist groups are also considered in the plans.