Skopje, 30 June 2022 (MIA) – Minister of Defense Slavjanka Petrovska took part in a working dinner of the NATO Ministers of Defense in Madrid, where the influence of hybrid threats in the Western Balkans was discussed. Petrovska pointed out that effective strategic communication is key in the fight against such threats and safety risks, as well as that overcoming such challenges are part of NATO’s priorities and the discussions at the Summit, said the Defense Ministry. “What we need is to increase the quality and effectiveness of our institutions through personnel professionalization. We also need education to enable the people to think critically. Resilience and power of the institutions and citizens is key in the fight against hybrid threats to the running of a society based on trust, as opposed to discord,” Petrovska said. Minister Petrovka reiterated the success of the Alliance’s open door policy, emphasizing that it’s necessary for it to transfer over into the EU’s enlargement to the Western Balkans which will strengthen security and enable more prosperity, and if not, the absence of a credible European perspective can have multiple negative tendencies in this region. dk/ba/