ATHENS/LONDON (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Wednesday that ties with Britain would not be harmed by the cancellation of a meeting with his British counterpart over the Parthenon marbles.
The case has increased tensions between the two countries which blame each other for the meeting that did not happen in London this week.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called it off after the Greek premier appeared on the BBC over the weekend and discussed the return of the Sculptures, known in Britain as the Elgin Marbles, from the British museum to Athens.
The cancellation prompted an angry response from the Greek premier and government officials said it was disrespectful. A British government spokesman later said Mitsotakis did not adhere to assurances that he would not publicly raise the issue.
Sunak told parliament on Wednesday that he called off the meeting it because the Greek premier was attempting to "grandstand and relitigate issues of the past".
"My view is when people make commitments they should keep them," he said.
Mitsotakis, meanwhile, appeared ready to tone down the rhetoric calling the cancellation of the meeting an "unfortunate event".
"I believe the move will not hurt relations between Greece and Britain in the longer term," he told President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, adding that Greece's demand for the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures had received more publicity than expected due to the turmoil.
Greece has repeatedly called on the British Museum to permanently return the 2,500-year-old sculptures that British diplomat Lord Elgin removed from the Parthenon temple in 1806, during a period when Greece was under Ottoman Turkish rule.
About half of the 160-metre frieze that adorned the Parthenon in Athens is in the British Museum, while 50 metres of the carvings are in the Acropolis museum in Greece.
During a BBC interview on Sunday, Mitsotakis compared the separation of the sculptures to cutting the Mona Lisa in half, a characterisation rejected by the British government. Greek government officials said Mitsotakis had only reiterated his country's longstanding stance.
The planned Mitsotakis Sunak meeting was cancelled a day later.
Sunak's Conservatives, who have been in power for the last 13 years, are trailing by the opposition Labour Party by around 20 points in opinion polls before a general election expected next year.
On Wednesday, Labour leader Keir Starmer accused Sunak of trying to "hide his failures" by manufacturing a row over the sculptures and trying to humiliate Mitsotakis.
Greece has said it would be willing to loan antiquities to the British Museum in return for being able to temporarily exhibit the Parthenon Sculptures in Athens and that such a deal would not alter its long-standing demand for their permanent return.
The British museum has said it would consider a loan to Greece only if it acknowledges the British Museum's ownership of the sculptures, something Greek governments have refused.
But in January, the British Museum called for a new Parthenon Partnership with Greece.
"Discussions with Greece about a Parthenon Partnership are on-going and constructive," said a British Museum spokesperson.
"We believe that this kind of long term partnership would strike the right balance between sharing our greatest objects with audiences around the world, and maintaining the integrity of the incredible collection we hold at the museum.”