DW: The meeting between Johnson and Mitsotaki came as no surprise

Today’s meeting of the two prime ministers in London is positive in the context of the “expected” with a full-fledged discussion and the sculptures of the Parthenon in the center.

Quite in good spirits, Boris Johnson welcomed Kyriakos Mitsotakis to the historic Number 10 of Downing Street, at 15:15 local time. The two political leaders exchanged compliments in front of the cameras, with the British Prime Minister calling Kyriakos Mitsotakis a “friend” and stressing the importance of the close ties between the two countries.

In turn, the Greek Prime Minister recognized in the face of Johnson “a real philhellene” and congratulated him on the organization of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Glasgow (COP26), which ended last Saturday with the agreement of 197 countries.

Turkish politics in the region

In an in-depth discussion, which lasted about an hour, the two leaders made an assessment of Greek-British relations, with the aim of strengthening and further cooperation between the two countries. Turkish policy and the Cyprus issue could not be missing from the discussion.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis clarified that Greece is ready for dialogue with Turkey, always within the framework of international law, and now argued at the level of prime ministers that the neighboring country plays a destabilizing role. Something that came in full harmonization with the recent visit of Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias to London.

“The request for the reunification of the Marbles is not a flare”

However, the issue that continues to occupy the British media is the issue of the reunification of the Parthenon Marbles. As expected, the request of Kyriakos Mitsotakis was not met as the British side insists that the issue “does not concern the British government but only the British Museum”. Of course, Kyriakos Mitsotakis insisted that “our request is not a flare”, while according to government sources it seems that it will be an issue that will take time to resolve, but the government is prepared for that. The Greek Prime Minister stressed to his British counterpart that this is “primarily a value and political issue and we will use all means to achieve our goal.”

The Financial Times in today’s article, hosted a photo from the distant 1986, of Boris Johnson with the protagonist of the Elginian return project, Melina Mercouri. According to Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in fact, this meeting confirms that Boris Johnson was once a strong supporter of the return of the Parthenon Marbles.

Zoe Katzagiannaki, London

Source: Deutsche Welle