Rubio visit seeks to deepen military cooperation with country rattled by Trump's threats against neighboring Greenland
By Vera Bergengruen
REYKJAVIK -- Secretary of State Marco Rubio brought President Trump's Arctic ambitions to Iceland on Tuesday, looking to build on a deal that emerged from Trump's push to take control of Greenland as the U.S. expands its military reach across the region.
In meetings with Icelandic officials, Rubio said the administration was open to expanding security cooperation, citing Iceland's infrastructure, technology and surveillance capabilities.
"There's interest in doing more together," Rubio said, praising Iceland for allowing "the U.S. military to project power using your land, your air, your sea, giving us a critical outpost for monitoring clandestine behavior and deterring our adversaries."
While last month's deal fell short of Trump's demands to control Greenland, a self-governing territory that is part of Denmark, it paved the way for a larger U.S. military presence. Such a buildup would further increase the strategic importance of neighboring Iceland, which has airfields, ports and surveillance infrastructure that provide a natural staging ground for operations in Greenland and across the North Atlantic.
"Iceland's contribution is being a base, our actual country. Literally," Iceland's Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir told The Wall Street Journal in an interview last month on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. "A lot of the logistics that go to Greenland actually go through Iceland, just because of the geography. So there might be some increase in services in that area, and you know we're going to be open to that."
Rubio's visit -- part of a three-day tour of North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies that includes Greece and Portugal -- comes as the U.S. turns military attention back on the Arctic after Washington largely deprioritized the region after the Cold War. Iceland became a founding member of NATO despite having no standing military, underscoring the importance of its strategic location.
The U.S. ended its permanent military presence in Iceland in 2006 as it shifted forces elsewhere. But the island's location on a strategic maritime corridor has become increasingly important as the U.S. and NATO partners aim to monitor Russian submarine activity and protect undersea infrastructure.
On Tuesday, Rubio toured a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon at Keflavik Air Base, one of the maritime patrol aircraft that rotate through Iceland to hunt and track submarines across the North Atlantic. He also re-created a famous photo with his Icelandic counterpart at Höfði House, highlighting Iceland's role in the landmark 1986 summit between former President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
"The reality of it is the world has changed over the last 20 years," Rubio said. "Our focus has changed. There's a lot of focus on the Arctic."
But Trump's threats to take control of Greenland, "whether they like it or not," strained the NATO alliance and rattled Iceland next door. Thousands of people signed a petition urging Iceland to reject Trump's pick for ambassador, Billy Long, after he reportedly joked that Iceland would become America's "52nd state" and that he would become the governor. Long later apologized.
A Gallup poll last year found nearly three-quarters of Icelanders viewed U.S. interest in Greenland and the Arctic as a threat. In August, Justice Minister Þorbjörg Sigríður Gunnlaugsdóttir wrote that Iceland and its Nordic neighbors had to confront the fact that "a threat comes from the United States."
Tensions escalated again last month, with Iceland summoning Long after Trump posted an image of the island covered by the U.S. flag and labeled the "United States of America," which its prime minister called an "insult" and "ridiculous."
On Tuesday, Rubio sought to smooth over such difficulties, stressing that Washington wouldn't expand its military activities in Iceland without the country's cooperation and emphasizing U.S. respect for its sovereignty.
"We are looking forward, not backwards," Foreign Minister Thorgerdur Katrín Gunnarsdóttir said.
The episode has nevertheless left a mark on U.S. relations with the region. Trump's threats were a "big shock" and it will take some time to rebuild trust, Frostadóttir, the prime minister, said, but she called the renewed U.S. focus on the Arctic is a "silver lining"
"We've been trying to get people's eyes up north for a really long time," she told the Journal. "Let's not be naive about Russia, about China, about everything that's going on."
The U.S. push to devote more military resources to the Arctic is colliding with competing demands elsewhere. A NATO exercise in the country last month underscored the strain. While U.S. personnel participated in Northern Viking, the American military presence was smaller than in previous exercises.
Rubio attributed the reduced presence to competing demands, including protecting shipping lanes amid the Iran war. "Sometimes they're not available for exercises," he said, adding that the absence wasn't an "enduring decision."