New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he would encourage King Charles III to return the Koh-i-Noor diamond.
“If I was to speak to the King separately from that, I would probably encourage him to return the Koh-i-Noor diamond,” Mamdani said at a press conference on Wednesday before meeting the British monarch in the city later that day.
Mamdani was asked what he would say to the King during the monarch’s State Visit to the United States. King Charles addressed a joint meeting of the US Congress and, with Queen Camilla, was honoured at a state dinner hosted by President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump.
The royal couple visited the 9/11 Memorial in New York City, where they paid respects to the victims of the 2001 terror attacks, and also visited Harlem Grown, a network of urban farms in Upper Manhattan. Mamdani met King Charles at the 9/11 Memorial.
The 105.6-carat Koh-i-Noor diamond was given to Queen Victoria in 1849 by Maharajah Duleep Singh and was later set in the Crown of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother for the 1937 coronation. It is currently displayed at the Tower of London.
India has indicated it will continue to explore ways to bring back the Koh-i-Noor from the United Kingdom, raising the matter periodically with the UK government and seeking a “satisfactory resolution of the matter.” The Historic Royal Palaces charity notes the diamond had many previous owners, including Mughal emperors, Shahs of Iran, Emirs of Afghanistan, and Sikh Maharajas.
