By Maria Spiliopoulou
ATHENS, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Britain's royal heir Charles, Prince of Wales accompanied by the Duchess of Cornwall, continued a historic official three-day visit to Athens on Thursday, honoring the longstanding maritime and military relationship between Britain and Greece.
Prince Charles is the first heir to the British throne paying an official visit to Greece, the birthplace of his father, although he has visited the country privately in the past.
After talks with Greek political leaders on Wednesday, the prince and his wife paid tribute to the fallen heroes of WWII by laying a wreath at the Commonwealth cemetery of Phaleron district at the Athenian Riviera.
"We will remember them," Prince Charles said for the over 2,000 Commonwealth service personnel who died during campaigns in Greece and the Balkans.
The British heir was also given a tour of the British warship HMS "Echo", which is part of the NATO migrant-crisis force in the Aegean and the British Border Agency patrol vessel HMC "Valiant", which participates in Aegean search-and-rescue operations for migrants and refugees, as they were docked nearby.
Prince Charles accompanied by Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos also toured the Battleship "Averoff", a 107 years old vessel which has been turned into a floating Naval Museum and "Olympias", a reconstruction of an ancient Athenian trireme, before meeting with representatives of the Greek Shipping industry.
Nine BAE Hawks from the UK Royal Air Force elite air display team "Red Arrows", led by a Hellenic Air Force Mirage 2000-5 fighter jet, conducted an aerobatics display above "Olympias" during the tour.
On Friday, the royal couple will fly to Crete Island where they will visit archaeological sites and a refugee shelter before leaving Greece.
