Georgian PM claims “Global War Party” continuing its “blackmail” of country

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on Monday claimed the “Global War Party” - a reference to unspecified political forces in the West who allegedly seek to create a revolutionary scenario in Georgia and involve the country into opening a “second front” amid the ongoing war in Ukraine - was continuing to “blackmail” the country over the topic of the European Union opening accession talks with it.

Kobakhidze said the topic of the talks had been “completely used up as a tool of blackmail” and claimed there was “specific information” regarding organisations and individuals who represented the alleged group.

The chance [of opening of accession talks] before the initiation of the [recently adopted transparency] law had been zero, now it is 20-30 percent. We have said that our task is to become a member state of the European Union by 2030. We are pursuing this goal consistently, but the blackmail continues”, he said.

“This is not the European Union. This is the so-called Global War Party, which unfortunately has a qualitative impact on the European Union. The Global War Party is continuing to blackmail Georgia, although today the topic of opening the accession talks has been completely use up as a tool of blackmail. Therefore, there is no value for this matter”, the PM added.

He also recalled the country having been granted the EU membership candidate status in 2023 after it had been denied the year prior and said there had been “various statements [made about the outcome] in 2023 as well, but we [still] received the candidate status”.