Skopje, 11 April 2023 (MIA) - One of the things I discussed today with the government officials in the country are the ways in which the United States can help the government with its analytical capabilities and technical assistance in tackling the spread of disinformation, James Rubin, Special Envoy and Coordinator of the US State Department's Global Engagement Center said on Tuesday.

Rubin said that during today’s meetings with Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski, First Deputy PM Artan Grubi and government ministers, they discussed the ways of recognizing and identifying the problem of spreading disinformation and finding answers.

“Those answers cannot come from just one country, but from many countries together, because the information is liquid and spreads throughout the information space. The solution will be much more successful if many countries stand together and jointly behind those policies and practices,” Rubin said.

He emphasized that the country now faces a decision on the constitutional amendments, after it was forced to make very tough decisions in the past, even changing its name in order to become a member of NATO, pointing out that he hopes that the government will have the necessary political leadership to take the necessary steps to take the country into the EU.

According to him, it is legitimate for someone to express own opinion and disagree with such decisions, but if misinformation and propaganda are spread, then it will be very difficult to conduct a normal political debate on issues such as changing the Constitution.

“I am sure that there are those in the region and in the Kremlin who do not want to see progress on this issue and want to prevent North Macedonia from progressing towards European institutions and are thinking of how to cause problems,” Rubin said, expressing hope that the government in cooperation with the United States will be able to develop a comprehensive approach, infrastructure and laws to deal with the disinformation spreaders.

Rubin announced that he will soon visit Bulgaria, which, although it is a member of NATO and an ally of the United States, has, "a lot of polluters" who spread various stories, manipulations, and sometimes even lies.

He noted that the Western Balkans is a place where the problem of disinformation is real, and that is precisely why one of his first trips since taking office as a Special Envoy and Coordinator of the Global Engagement Center three months ago is precisely a visit to the region.

Rubin pointed out Russia as the main source of that disinformation, which is then spread and promoted throughout the region, including in the country, through a hub in Serbia.

“It is a challenge that is hard to recognize, but there are promising signs. It is that this government recognizes them as a threat and wants to work with us to identify them and to create institutional capacities to deal with this problem,” Rubin said.

According to him, the Western Balkans went through a process of transformation from conflicts, wars and poverty to a period of normalization of relations between the countries of the region, and for further progress, the normalization of relations between Prishtina and Belgrade would be crucial.

“It requires difficult decisions from political leaders. They have made some difficult decisions, but they will have to make other difficult decisions as well. Leadership is measured by results and I would suggest that they make those tough decisions so that people can benefit from being part of Europe and fully integrated into European institutions, NATO, the EU, the Council of Europe,” Rubin noted.

He underlined that it will take a long time for the people in the region to forgive and forget, but they will have to learn to live together and feel the benefits of modern Europe, for which difficult decisions will have to be made on normalization, but also to deal with the intoxication that comes with the spread of disinformation poisoning normal states.

“There are hopeful things for normalization and a better future for the region, but that hopeful future can be poisoned by misinformation, which can cause divisions between people,” Rubin said.

The goal of Russia, as he underlined, is to cause divisions between states and peoples by spreading lies and propaganda and presenting things in "black and white" so that people cannot see clearly the aggressor and the victim in the Russian aggression against Ukraine, emphasizing that it is not a war of the Russian people, but of the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin.

“Responsible governments do not allow their countries to be spreaders of poison. Information poisoning is pollution and it must be cleaned up, Rubin said.

According to him, the spread of misinformation in the information space cannot be completely prevented, but institutional ways must be found to limit it.

“I must say that the problem of disinformation is a big problem, because Russia and China have been engaged for a long time and spend a lot of money in the information sphere. I have no illusions that this is a problem that can be easily solved. It is a major challenge, a real threat,” Rubin said.

He pointed out that the Global Engagement Center (GEC) is a new institution established by the US Administration, because it recognized that the fight against disinformation is a big challenge, for which it does not yet has all the answers.

Rubin said that the West must face it and find ways to deal with this threat, as it faces climate change, terrorism, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, pointing out that new phenomena require new solutions.

“We are working on new solutions, policies and practices. We are working with the government here, we are working with the EU, on policies and practices that will not only enable us to better respond to these disinformation and information manipulations when they happen, but also to their sources. These are mainly authoritarian regimes that see the information sphere as a place for competition and confrontation with us,” Rubin added.