King Charles raises eyebrows with his tie choice amid UK-Greece dispute

DUBAI – Britain’s King Charles III wore a tie bearing the colours and symbols of the Greek national flag to a climate conference on Dec 1, days after British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak snubbed Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis

in a row over the Parthenon sculptures, removed from Greece by Britain in the 19th century.

The King, who wore the tie when he met Mr Sunak on the sidelines of COP28 in the United Arab Emirates and when he delivered a speech at the event, has Greek lineage through his father, the late Prince Philip, who was born on the Greek island of Corfu.

Mr Sunak deepened a diplomatic row with Athens on Nov 27 by accusing Mr Mitsotakis of “grandstanding” during a recent trip to London over ownership of the Parthenon Marbles, known in Britain as the Elgin Marbles. Mr Sunak had cancelled a planned meeting with Mr Mitsotakis earlier in the week.

A Buckingham Palace source said on Dec 1 that the King also wore the same tie last week, before the escalation of the dispute.

A spokesperson for Mr Sunak declined to comment.

British media noted that as well as the blue and white tie featuring the same white cross design as the Greek flag, the King sported a blue and white handkerchief protruding from his jacket pocket.

“In a week when Rishi Sunak cancelled a meeting with the Greek Prime Minister to make a ‘stand’ over the #ParthenonMarbles #ElginMarbles… King Charles appears to have chosen to wear a very interesting tie when he met Mr Sunak in Dubai today,” ITV television’s royal editor Chris Ship said on social media platform X.

Athens has long 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.

The museum has said it would consider a loan to Greece only if Athens acknowledges the museum’s ownership of the sculptures. REUTERS