Incumbent Tbilisi Mayor Kaladze: ‘friendship and partnership must be mutual’

Incumbent Tbilisi Mayor and ruling party candidate Kakha Kaladze on Monday said the Georgian Government was ready to take concrete steps toward European integration, but not under what he called “double standards.”

Responding to a question on the matter, Kaladze argued that some European bureaucrats were using visa liberalisation as the last tool to “blackmail” the Georgian people.

“The Government of Georgia is ready to move forward, but not under double standards [...] When they come out and say that transparency is bad, that it goes against European values and hinders integration, a simple question arises: why is transparency bad? We have received no arguments or answers, only political speculation aimed at harming the country and the people.

“First, they threatened us with candidate status, then with talks on whether negotiations would open. Now, what they have left in their hands is visa liberalisation, and they use that to blackmail our citizens,” Kaladze said.

He also warned that as long as the Russia-Ukraine war continues, there remains a risk of attempts to open a “second front” in Georgia.

“Many times, we have been directly pressured, even threatened. Of course, the risk has not disappeared. We do not want our country to be used to serve someone else’s interests. We want friends and partners, but not at the expense of our own national interests. Friendship and partnership must be mutual,” Kaladze said.