UK PM Rishi Sunak Digs Himself a Diplomatic Hole

Tory Prime Minister Rishi Sunak unwittingly got himself embroiled in a deepening row with a NATO ally after unexpectedly cancelling a meeting the Greek Prime Minister.  Sunak's government believed it had assurances that Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis would not speak publicly about the Parthenon Sculptures (i.e., the Elgin Marbles) while on his UK visit.  But they were wrong.

On Sunday, Greece's leader said in an interview with the BBC that having some of the treasures in London and others in Athens was like cutting the Mona Lisa in half.   When asked by Laura Kuenssberg during the interview, the Greek PM had called for the sculptures to be returned.  He said they were "essentially stolen" and called for a partnership with the British Museum so people could "appreciate" the works "in their original setting".

In a childish reaction, Sunak's office scrapped the PM's meeting with Mitsotakis at the last minute.  British political observers have described the row as "pathetic".  The Greek government confirmed that there had been no assurances given to the UK over Mitsotakis talking about the sculptures while he was in the UK.

The sculptures are a collection of ancient Greek treasures from the Parthenon in Athens which were stolen by British diplomat Lord Elgin in the early 19th Century. They have been in the British Museum since 1832, aside from a stint in Aldwych Tube station during World War Two to prevent damage and one marble being loaned to a Russian museum in 2014.

A Greek minister branded the row a "bad day" for British-Greek relations.  Adonis Georgiadis told the BBC that Sunak's decision was a "mistake" adding, "What [the Greek PM] mentioned in his interview is not just his own opinion, it is the single one opinion of 11 million Greek people."

Professor Irene Stamatoudi, a former member of the advisory committee for the Greek Minister of Culture, said the row "makes Rishi Sunak look no better than Lord Elgin,"  adding that it was "not possible" for the Greek PM not to respond to questions about the Parthenon Sculptures.

Mitsotakis told reporters he was "deeply disappointed by the abrupt cancellation" of the talks.  Sources with knowledge of the mood in the Greek government have suggested Mitsotakis was both "baffled" and "annoyed".  Greek government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis said that "Britain's attitude shows no respect for the prime minister and our country."

There is an ongoing wider debate around the place of museums and their collections in a post-colonial world, with Sunak seemingly positioning himself decisively on one side of that argument.   Lord Vaizey, who chairs the advisory board of the Parthenon Project dedicated to returning the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece, said it was "odd" for Sunak  to cancel the meeting. The ex-culture minister said: "It is tied up to a certain extent in the traditional culture wars, where anyone who dares to say that British history wasn't perfect is somehow unpatriotic.   The trouble with that is that, from what I can gather, every opinion poll that surveys the British public says that they do think that the sculptures should be returned."

A Labor Party spokesman told the BBC: "To pick a fight with a NATO ally for the sake of a headline shows just how weak Rishi Sunak is."