politics
The Icelandic Minister of Foreign Affairs Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir and the Norwegian Minister of Defense Tore O. Sandvik.
Ole Andreas Vekve/the Norwegian Armed Forces
On Wednesday, Iceland and Norway signed a Memorandum of Understanding on enhanced defense cooperation. “This will improve our readiness to respond to rapid changes in our security environment in the Arctic and in Europe,” says the Icelandic Foreign Minister.
This week,
the Norwegian Minister of Defense Tore O. Sandvik (Labor) hosted a ministerial
meeting of the Nordic Defense Cooperation (NORDEFCO) in Trøndelag, Norway.
On the
sidelines of the meeting, Sandvik and Iceland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs
Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir (Liberal Reform Party) signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) on enhanced defense cooperation.
The
agreement provides a comprehensive framework for more dialogue and cooperation
in areas such as surveillance and analysis, capacity building and
infrastructure development, host nation support, resilience and protection of
critical infrastructure.
“The
defense cooperation between Iceland and Norway is built on a very strong
foundation. This new agreement will strengthen it further and improve our
readiness to respond to rapid changes in our security environment in the Arctic
and in Europe,” Gunnarsdóttir says in a press release.
Sandvik
also underlines the already close defense ties between the countries.
“Norway has participated several times in NATO Air Policing in Iceland with fighters to
monitor and protect Icelandic airspace. This strengthens security in the North
Atlantic and shows how allies take joint responsibility for security and
stability,” he states.
Signing ceremony of the MoU.
Synne Kvam/the Norwegian Ministry of Defense
High priority
Håkon Lunde Saxi, Professor at the Norwegian Defense Command and Staff College.
The Norwegian Defense University College
“This
agreement fits into a pattern in which Norways is perhaps the Nordic country
with the greatest focus on Iceland, followed by Denmark,” says Håkon Lunde
Saxi, Professor at the Norwegian Defense Command and Staff College, to High
North News.
“Norway
contributes to NATO Air Policing in both Iceland and the Baltics, but has
prioritized presence in Iceland much higher. Statistics from a few years ago
showed that two-thirds of Norwegian contributions to this type of NATO mission
were in Iceland, while Danish contributions were fairly evenly distributed.”
The
Norwegian and Allied attention to Iceland, which has no armed
forces, is particularly linked to the importance of open sea lines of
communication, Saxi points out.
“Iceland is
an ‘unsinkable aircraft carrier’ in the North Atlantic with great importance
for securing logistics routes towards the Fennoscandian peninsula on which
Norway, Sweden and Finland are located. This is clearly illustrated when NATO
conducts large exercises in the Nordic region: Iceland is used as a hub to
protect the sea routes to bring in allied reinforcements and supplies,” he
outlines.
This autumn,
Iceland also signed bilateral defense agreements with Germany and Finland.