At the center of a diplomatic dispute is British Prime Minister Rishi Sounak after the cancellation of his planned meeting with Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Politico writes in its commentary with the scathing title “Rishi Sounak’s Greek tragedy”.

Prime Minister Rishi Sounak is at the center of a diplomatic firestorm this morning after he canceled a planned meeting with his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Politico reports. “We smelled the brewing conflict when the “No. 10” announced that Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden would appear at the scheduled Prime Minister’s meeting, which seemed strange given that Mitsotakis had told the television network that he was going to meet Sunak. About an hour later, the Greek prime minister announced that he was interrupting his trip and returning home.

“You say Parthenon Sculptures, I say Elginia Marble”

The controversy was ignited after the appearance of Kyriakos Mitsotakis on a BBC show, where he spoke directly about the sculptures that are still in the British Museum. “It’s like if I told you that you would cut the Mona Lisa in half and you would have half in the Louvre and the other half in the British Museum,” he said characteristically, adding “that’s exactly what happened with the Parthenon Sculptures.”

It is said that Sunak was irritated by Mitsotakis’ words, so much so that he decided to take the unexpected step of canceling their talks, which were scheduled to take place at 12.45pm. (UK time) today, while the Greek leader was halfway through his three-day trip to London. A BBC reporter quoted a “senior Conservative source” as saying: “It was made impossible for this meeting to take place following comments about the Elginian Marbles before it.”

Instead of accepting the change, Mitsotakis refused to meet Dowden and delivered a scathing rebuke: “I express my annoyance that the British Prime Minister canceled our scheduled meeting just hours before it was due to take place. Whoever believes in the correctness and justice of his positions is never afraid to face arguments.”

The Greek Prime Minister was uninvited for tea with Rishi, around the time he was… meeting Keir Starmer on Monday night — with the Tories keen to show the Labor leader was soft-spoken on the marbles issue. A person close to the talks told Politico that the issue was “discussed, but not the focus of the meeting”. They added that Labor sees the issue as being about the British Museum and Greeks, not the UK government.

Fierce clash between Tories and Labor over the meeting with Mitsotakis

A Labor representative said of Sunak’s decision not to meet Mitsotakis: “If the prime minister is unable to meet with a European ally with which Britain has significant economic ties, this is further evidence that it is unable to provide the serious economic leadership our country requires.”

However, a senior Tory official recalled recent reports over the weekend that Starmer is “open” to returning the marbles if
agreement between the museum and the Greeks. They added: “Starmer sold out to secure a meeting. It is naive of him, and shows how little respect he has for the British taxpayers who have looked after them (the Sculptures) for generations. Starmer is back to his old tricks of telling the person in front of him what he wants to hear.”

Labor said walking out of the meeting, Sunak missed the opportunity to discuss the issue of irregular immigration with a key ally of Europe. A Labor source said “Keir and the Greek prime minister discussed immigration in their meeting, so you have the leader of the opposition as the voice of the UK on all these important issues”.

The X was divided, with some Brits saying Downing Street had “made a mess” with “the mega-snobbery of the Greeks”, and others arguing Labor had fallen into a trap of “appearing indecisive over the Marbles”. They made a third, and demonstrative, group as a distraction.