The announcement by the NATO Secretary General that the number of members of the emergency response units will increase from 40.000 to 300.000 so far seems like a "dead letter" on paper.

According to the Washington Post, the leaders of the NATO member states who gathered in Madrid began to wonder who and how many of their troops should enter those units to fill the number of as many as 300.000.

"It may be an unrealistic figure," said a senior EU official who, like other officials who commented on Stoltenberg's announcement of a large number of troops, requested anonymity.

According to the Washington Post, most of them said they were shocked and surprised by the stated plan for the number of NATO troops, adding that they had not been consulted at all about the possibilities.

The dilemma remains as to how many NATO member states need to deploy troops to reach the truly staggering 300.000 troops, and where they would be deployed.

On the other hand, when NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at a press conference in Madrid was asked how he intends to achieve that large number of troops, he said that the "majority" will be stationed in their home countries and will be built on the existing staff. That would mean, he explained, that those troops would stay "at home" but be available for rapid redeployment in the event of a crisis. that is, 100.000 troops in ten days, 200.000 in thirty days.

"It goes without saying that member states always contribute to NATO," Stoltenberg said, adding that he expects the plan of 300.000 people in the emergency response units to be completed by the end of the year.

However, a NATO official, who also requested anonymity, said details of Stoltenberg's plan had yet to be worked out with member states and that the figure of 300.000 was still only theoretical.

"The whole concept has not been worked out yet and now we will have to make a model according to which we will be able to see what the obligations of each member state would be," the official said.

The confusion over the extreme increase in military power has nothing to do with the smaller but perhaps more significant announcement that the alliance will deploy brigades of about 3.000 to 5.000 troops in the four most bordering member states of Russia.

Although those figures were far below the most ambitious demands of Eastern Europe in the months leading up to the summit, NATO policymakers said it would significantly boost NATO's ability to defend Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.