King Charles III and Queen Camilla briefly met New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on April 29 during the royal couple's visit to the 9/11 Memorial, where they honored the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks and met with first responders.
The brief exchange came hours after Mamdani told reporters that he would privately urge the monarch to return the Koh‑i‑Noor to India, a historically disputed diamond held by the British Crown, if given the chance to speak with Charles one‑on‑one.
"If I were to speak to the king separately from that, I would probably encourage him to return the Koh-i-Noor Diamond," Mamdani, a Muslim born in Uganda to parents of Indian descent, said at the event, Reuters reported.
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It was not immediately clear whether Mamdani raised the issue during his brief conversation with the king at the memorial. USA TODAY reached out to Mamdani’s office for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
What is the Koh-i-Noor diamond?
The infamous 105-carat Koh-i-Noor diamond from India came into British hands and the British Crown Jewels by murky means in the colonial era. It was last seen in public resting on the Queen Mother's casket at her funeral.
India has repeatedly demanded that the monarchy return the diamond. According to Reuters, Britain's then colonial governor-general of India arranged for the huge diamond to be presented to Queen Victoria in 1850 after the East India Company had annexed the Punjab region in 1849 and taken the diamond from a deposed Indian leader.
India, which received independence from British rule in 1947, has said that the Koh-i-Noor diamond was a "valued piece of art with strong roots in our nation's history," Reuters reported. The diamond has been previously owned by India's Mughal emperors, shahs of Iran, emirs of Afghanistan, and Sikh maharajas, according to Reuters, citing the Historic Royal Palaces charity.
Contributing: Maria Puente, Marco della Cava, Terry Collins, Francesca Chambers, Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, and Nicole Fallert, USA TODAY; Reuters
Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@usatodayco.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mamdani meets King Charles after Koh-i-Noor diamond remarks
