Blackmail should end with the opening of negotiations, if they want to open negotiations, put it on the table and I will sign it today, - Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Kobakhidze said at the press conference.

According to the head of the government, the ruling team could have said at the briefing that it refuses to open negotiations for four years, although it did not say so.

"We said that we are removing this issue from the agenda for the next four years. For so long, two years, the candidate status was used for blackmail. It was a disaster what was happening over our country when we most needed peace in the country. At the beginning of the war in Ukraine. It was at that time that they started blackmailing our country with the status of a candidate, and it continued for almost two years. From February 2022 to December 2023, we were blackmailed as a candidate. Then this tool of blackmail was used, we were given the status of a candidate and they started blackmailing us by opening negotiations. All this has been going on for three years now and is an artificial tool by which they are trying to divide the society, inflame polarization, inflame radicalism. This has to end. That's why we say a simple thing, end the blackmail with all this, please, if they want to open negotiations, put it on the table and I will sign it today. We say one thing, from our side, this issue will not be on the agenda for the next four years in order not to leave anyone a tool of blackmail", said Irakli Kobakhidze.