UK royals join tour of national gallery in Athens

Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall visited the National Gallery in Athens on Wednesday as part of  two days of celebrations in Greece to mark the bicentenary of the start of the country's war of independence.

The events will be far more muted than originally planned due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The royal couple were greeted by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his wife Mareva Grabowska, and later toured the gallery together.

Also attending was Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou.

Dignitaries from Britain, Russia and France - the great powers that helped the nation as it sought independence from the Ottoman Empire starting in 1821 - as well as from Cyprus began arriving in Athens on Wednesday, while celebrations are to culminate in a military parade in central Athens on Thursday, Greece's Independence Day.

But with Greece struggling with a renewed surge in coronavirus cases and deaths, the public will not be allowed to attend the parade, which will be broadcast live by state television.

Despite being under lockdown-type measures since early November, the country has seen spiralling coronavirus infections, with record numbers of patients intubated in intensive care units and dozens of daily deaths.

As of Tuesday evening, more than 7,580 people had died in Greece since the start of the pandemic, and there were just under 242,350 total confirmed cases in the country of around 11 million people.

On Thursday, major avenues in the centre of the capital will be closed to traffic for the parade, while thousands of police were being deployed in the Greek capital.

Police announced they were banning seven rallies and protests that had been planned in Athens on Thursday.

The parade is to be attended by Prince Charles and Camilla, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, and French Defence Minister Florence Parly, as well as Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades.

The 200th anniversary of the start of Greece's war of independence comes at a time of frosty relations with neighbour and NATO ally Turkey.

Tension between the two countries spiked last year over territorial and energy exploration rights, with warships from both nations facing off in the eastern Mediterranean.

Friction between the two has eased somewhat in recent months, with both sides restarting a long-running process of exploratory talks.

Turkey has also withdrawn its exploratory ships from waters claimed by Cyprus and Greece.

Long-standing differences between the two include territorial claims in the Aegean Sea, and the situation in the ethnically divided island nation of Cyprus, split since 1974 when Turkey invaded following a coup aimed at unifying the island with Greece.

A Turkish Cypriot state declared in the north is recognised only by Turkey.