Skopje, 7 September 2022 (MIA) - As a member of NATO, we are committed to collective security, which has been evident throughout the year through all the activities, including assistance and support for Ukraine, the Swift Response and Flash 22 military exercise. But, military and political activities are closely connected to their communication and the skill to convey them as closer as possible and as accurately as possible to the citizens. It depends on the communications and our openness whether and how the citizens will understand how we work to protect their security, Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski said Wednesday addressing the opening of the NATO Communicators Conference, hosted this year by North Macedonia. "Even though the security circles sometimes are of opinion that a discussion on security lacks in the public, meaning the security is doing its job, I however do not agree with this. I believe that in the era of disinformation and hybrid attacks, it is in fact the strategic communications that play a vital role in the fight. The military invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the huge inflow of disinformation about the aggression have shown us that communications could have a destructive impact and we must fight it. It is a fact that Ukraine is currently successfully handling the information war, for which it has the support from all of us. But, it is this information war that shows us what is the role of communications in the stability of one country and one region," Kovachevski said. Communications and the information sphere have never been more important for security and stability, according to him. The security crisis Europe and the world is facing, the PM said, also in the information sphere through cyber security and hybrid attacks, shows that all of us, as NATO members, European countries and as Balkan countries even more so, should intensify the focus in the sphere. Kovachevski said the government has been committed to the fight against disinformation also in partnership with the media and the civil society. "Only a joint social approach could be the answer because the issue with hybrid actions is a complex one affecting the whole society." Easily available accurate and fact-checked information, he concluded, are the resource in the fight against disinformation daily and the established standard of openness and transparency helps in eliminating the spreading of disinformation. The NATO Communicators Conference is the Alliance’s largest annual gathering of communicators. Around 300 participants will discuss strategic communications on several panels at the conference. The event will also see addresses by Minister of Defense Slavjanka Petrovska, and NATO Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy Baiba Braže. Allied Operations Command commander General Christopher Cavoli and Allied Transformation Command commander General Philippe Lavigne will join the conference via video link.