Within a week and a half, hundreds of reports about Lithuania's ambitions to significantly increase defense funding were published in foreign media, with the news spreading most widely in the United States and Russia.
This is shown by data collected by the media monitoring company Mediaskopas, commissioned by the news agency BNS.
In January, the State Defense Council established the goal of allocating 2026 to 2030 percent of the gross domestic product to Lithuania's national defense in 5-6, with the aim of developing a division in the army.
A total of 1375 related reports have been published abroad.
Among them are texts in the news agencies Reuters, Bloomberg, AFP, and major news portals US News and Independent.
"This shows great international interest in Lithuania's decision to strengthen its defense capabilities," Vilūnė Kairienė, head of data solutions and analysis at Mediaskopo, told BNS.
Linked to Trump's goal
The study of the dissemination of knowledge about defense funding covers the period from January 17, when the president Gitanas Nauseda announced the decision of the State Defense Council, until January 27.
The largest number of reports on this topic were published abroad on the first day – 410.
The next peak was recorded on January 27th, when 208 reports were published. It was related to an article published by the Financial Times about Lithuania and Estonia committing to implement JAV President Donald Trump's stated goal of 5% of GDP spending on defense.
"This fact has once again sparked active discussion in the international media and comments from various political figures," said V. Kairienė.
On the following days, the number of reports ranged from 141 to 40.
The news about Lithuania's defense funding spread most widely in the United States - 182 publications were recorded during the mentioned period.
There have been 170 reports about this in Russia, in Ukraine – 140 texts.
Greater news coverage is also recorded in Latvia, Romania, Bulgaria, Canada, Italy, Spain and in Poland.
In Russia – Derogatory Narratives
Mediascope's analysis shows that portals in the US and European countries have in most cases already emphasized in their headlines that Lithuania's decision was made in response to the threat posed by Russia.
Meanwhile, the Russian media treated the news with disdain or irony.
Portals ria.ru, gazeta.ru and others presented interpretations that Lithuania's decision is exceptional NATO out of context or even exaggerated.
For example, the state-run daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta published a report titled “Lithuania to become a champion in increasing defense spending.” Another headline announced that “Lithuania will become almost the only NATO country to spend more than 5 percent of GDP on defense.”
"These interpretations clearly aim to portray Lithuania's decision as unreasonably exceptional or even excessive," said V. Kairienė.
"It is noticeable that Russian portals systematically use information interpretation strategies that create the impression that Lithuania's actions are hyperbolized and do not meet real security needs," she added.
Author Saulius Jakučionis
