Iceland is central to North Atlantic security, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during a visit to Reykjavík on Tuesday, as Washington signalled interest in closer military cooperation with the Nordic country.
Rubio met Icelandic Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir and Foreign Minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir on 6 October. Security in the Arctic and North Atlantic, defence cooperation and economic relations were among the main subjects discussed.
Speaking at a joint press conference, Rubio described Iceland’s geographical position as crucial to the defence of both Europe and the USA as military and other security challenges increase in the High North.
As NRK reported, Rubio said:
“Iceland is absolutely central to security in the North.”
He also described the country as a strategically important location from which the USA and its allies can monitor activity across the region and deter potential adversaries.
The USA wants closer defence cooperation with Iceland
Rubio said Washington would be open to discussing an expansion of security and defence cooperation. According to Norwegian broadcaster TV 2, he described Iceland as a “critical outpost” for the American military presence in the north.
No concrete plans for a military expansion were announced during the visit.
Rubio also stressed that any increase in the American military presence or new military infrastructure in Iceland would require the approval of the Icelandic government. Gunnarsdóttir described relations with the USA as very good and said Reykjavík wanted to continue developing them.
The two countries already have a bilateral defence agreement dating back to 1951. It allows Iceland to provide facilities needed for its defence and that of the wider North Atlantic area, while the scale of any American military presence remains subject to Icelandic approval.
Why Iceland matters for North Atlantic security
Iceland’s importance is largely geographical. The country sits in the middle of the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom gap, or GIUK Gap, the maritime passages connecting the Norwegian and Arctic seas with the wider North Atlantic.
The area was particularly important during the Cold War because Soviet submarines travelling from bases in northern Russia towards the Atlantic had to pass through it. Monitoring submarine movements remains one of the strategic functions associated with Iceland’s position today.
For decades, the main centre of American military activity was Keflavík, which hosted a permanent USA defence presence until 2006. Yle notes that during the Cold War the base played a major role in monitoring Soviet submarines and aircraft.
There has been no permanent foreign military force stationed at Keflavík since 2006, but the site continues to support NATO activities, including surveillance, air policing and anti-submarine operations. Iceland itself has no standing armed forces and instead contributes to NATO partly through infrastructure, surveillance systems and support for allied deployments.
The visit followed tensions over Trump’s map
Rubio’s trip also took place against a more difficult recent political background between Reykjavík and Washington.
On 7 September, President Donald Trump posted a map on Truth Social showing Iceland, Greenland, Canada and Central America covered by the American flag. Iceland’s foreign minister subsequently summoned USA ambassador Billy Long and told him that the post was entirely inappropriate.
The issue was raised again during Tuesday’s press conference, although Rubio and Gunnarsdóttir said it had not been discussed during their meeting.
“We are not here to talk about social media posts, but about the future,” Rubio said.
The renewed emphasis on Iceland also fits into a broader increase in strategic attention to the Arctic and North Atlantic. The USA, Denmark and Greenland recently reached a new security agreement providing for an expanded American military presence in Greenland.
For Iceland, however, Tuesday’s meeting produced no comparable announcement. What emerged instead was a clear signal from Washington that Iceland’s geography has once again become increasingly important to American and NATO security planning, while any further military expansion on the island remains dependent on Reykjavík’s agreement.
