Greek Prime Minister calls for return of Elgin Marbles

Rishi Sunak cancelled his meeting with the Greek Prime Minister as he felt he broke assurances not to use it to focus on the Elgin Marbles, Downing Street has said.

The Prime Minister was due to meet Kyriakos Mitsotakis today as part of his visit to London.

But he called off the meeting after Mr Mitsotakis used an interview ahead of the talks to demand the return of the Parthenon Sculptures.

No 10 said Mr Sunak decided it would “not be productive” to hold a meeting with his Greek counterpart if the marbles was the central issue.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “The UK and Greece relationship is hugely important, from our work together in Nato, to tackling shared challenges like illegal migration and joint efforts to resolve the crisis in the Middle East and the war in Ukraine.

“When requesting a meeting with the Prime Minister this week, the Greek government provided reassurances that they would not use the visit as a public platform to relitigate long settled matters relating to the ownership of the Parthenon Sculptures, which would only serve to distract from those important issues I just outlined.

“Given those assurances were not adhered to, the Prime Minister felt it would not be productive to hold a meeting dominated by that issue, rather than the important challenges facing Greek and British people.

“The Deputy Prime Minister was available to meet the Greek prime minister to discuss the wider topics and we are disappointed the prime minister opted not to take this meeting.”

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