King Charles’s arrival at the COP28 Climate Summit with a tie with Greek flag patterns on it, following the tension that arose between Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak over the return of the Parthenon statues to Athens, sparked debates. After Charles’s tie choice was interpreted as a display of support for Greece, Buckingham Palace made an announcement to state that the assumptions were false and that Charles had worn the tie even before the controversy arose. Meanwhile, Sunak stated that the statues in question could not be returned to Greece “legally.”

Kyriakos Mitsotakis had urged that the planned meeting on the return of some parts of the ‘Parthenon’ in the British Museum, namely ‘Elgin Marbles’ to Athens be accelerated. However, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak canceled the meeting to meet with the leader of the opposition Labor Party.