Greece was outraged by the cancellation of the visit of British Prime Minister Sunak

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s cancellation of a meeting with the head of the Greek government, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, caused a sharp reaction from the state authorities. Greek government representative named The incident was an “unprecedented story” in which a British politician did not show due respect to Greece.

Let us recall that the head of the government of the United Kingdom canceled a meeting with Mitsotakis due to the fact that during the negotiations he planned to raise the issue of returning the Parthenon sculptures, which are stored in the British Museum, back to Athens. These examples of ancient Greek art were taken from Greece more than 200 years ago by the British envoy Lord Elgin, who officially held this position from 1799 to 1803 and was stationed in Constantinople. At the same time, London has repeatedly emphasized that it does not plan to return anything to Athens.

Mitsotakis has already publicly expressed his dissatisfaction with Sunak canceling the joint talks. “I express my disappointment that the British Prime Minister canceled our scheduled meeting just hours before it took place,” he said. The Prime Minister of Greece emphasized that his state’s position on the issue of the Parthenon sculptures has long been known. And at the meeting of the heads of government of Great Britain and Greece, it was planned to discuss, in addition to cultural heritage, major international problems, including the situation in the Gaza Strip and Ukraine, the climate crisis and migration. “He who is confident in the correctness and fairness of his positions is never afraid of the struggle of arguments,” said Mitsotakis.

At the same time, a representative of the Greek government, who commented on the incident, noted that Athens does not want to aggravate the problem. And in any case, negotiations on the Parthenon marbles are already underway with the British Museum, and not with the authorities, he pointed out.