Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte challenged his British counterpart Theresa May to a game of pool at the first EU-Arab summit in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
"Let's play pool," Conte said in a video he tweeted late Sunday that showed him playing pool with May. "You'll have to show me how," the British prime minister said, with the Italian premier showing May how to play.
The video has gone viral on social media with critics decrying the European leaders' recreational activity while remaining silent on human rights violations in the Arab region, including the recent executions of nine men in Egypt. The summit opened in Sharm el-Sheikh on Sunday amid a high turnout from European officials despite the uproar caused by the execution of nine youth in connection to the assassination of Egypt's attorney general in 2015.
The two-day summit, however, saw only low-level representation from half of the Arab countries, according to official statements and Arab media outlets. Absent on the EU side were the leaders of France, Spain, Latvia and Lithuania.