The survey, commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and conducted by the public opinion and market research centre “Vilmorus”, has shown that the population of Lithuania supports its membership of NATO, is for closer cooperation between Lithuania and the Baltic states and Poland, and feels that the most serious threat comes from Russia and Belarus.

As for Lithuania’s membership of the EU, the poll reveals that two thirds (65 per cent) of the population are for and 12 per cent of the surveyed are against it. The greatest supporters of EU membership are young people, students and people with university degrees.

In response to the question what impact the election of Donald Trump as US President can have on relations between Lithuania and the US and on the security situation in the region, 39 per cent of the respondents say they tend to believe there will be no dramatic change; 27 per cent think that the situation may take a turn to the worse since the international environment is becoming unpredictable; while 8 per cent expect the situation to change for the better.

According to the opinion poll, the most active cooperation ties should be maintained between Lithuania and its neighbours, Latvia (67 per cent), Poland (65 per cent) and Estonia (62 per cent). Over a half of the respondents (59 per cent) mentioned Germany.

The majority of the respondents highlight Russia as the most hostile country posing the greatest threat to Lithuania (64 per cent). Belarus ranks second (20 per cent). It is noteworthy that the rate of negative assessment of Belarus grew by over a third (on 13 per cent) last year.

For most people (88 per cent), television is the source of information about Lithuania’s foreign policy. The second most frequent source is the Internet media, mentioned by 43 per cent of the surveyed. Radio was pointed out by 40 per cent and the press by 27 per cent of the respondents. The results are very similar to those of the last year’s poll. The significance of the Internet media and social networks increased last year, which is particularly true among young people.

What underwent the most notable change last year was the audience of Russian TV channels. 24 per cent of the population say they continuously watch TV news and international news shows on the 1st Baltic Channel, and 14 per cent say they watch RTR, which is by about one third less than the result obtained in the end 2015 poll.

The survey also shows a gradually growing interest in international affairs. 42 per cent of the respondents note that they are interested or very interested in foreign policy. The rate was 38 per cent a year ago. More than a half of those who note their interest in foreign policy (58 per cent) are of the opinion that Lithuanian interests are promoted by diplomatic means. 69 per cent of the people who have used the services of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Lithuanian diplomatic representations assess them as high or very high quality services.