News

About 64 percent of Lithuanian residents support Lithuania's aspirations of joining NATO, according to the results of the survey carried out by the Market and Public Opinion Research Centre "Vilmorus" on June 7-11 this year. 1056 inhabitants in 18 urban and 56 rural locations of Lithuania were interviewed during the survey. 20.5 percent of the respondents said they fully supported Lithuania's integration into NATO as soon as possible. 25.6 percent said they supported Lithuania's membership in principle noting, however, that the state should take care of necessary economic and social issues at the same time. 17.7 percent of the respondents were not against Lithuania's membership in NATO, though, they expressed interest to learn more on Lithuania's integration into NATO. 17.4 percent of the respondents said they would approve Lithuania's strive to join NATO if they got convinced that there was no cheaper way to guarantee national security, and all the allocations for national defence were being used efficiently and responsibly. Only a few of the respondents, 4.8 percent, stated they were indifferent both to the integration of Lithuania into NATO and to the national security perspectives of Lithuania. 25.5 percent of the respondents said Lithuania did not need membership in NATO. In March 2001, 51.2 percent of the respondents said that Lithuania should join NATO because membership in this organization would guarantee security and stability and attract foreign investment into Lithuania.