Iceland to broach defense cooperation as Rubio visits next week

Ragnhildur Sigurdardottir, Bloomberg News on Oct 2, 2026

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Iceland plans to discuss closer cooperation with the U.S., including on defense, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrives for a visit next week.

That’s after the U.S. struck a security deal over neighboring Greenland just last month.

“There are threats out there which make it important that we strengthen our solidarity,” Foreign Minister Thorgerdur Katrín Gunnarsdóttir said in an interview on Friday.

“Hopefully we can push through on business cooperation, energy cooperation and — not the least of which — defense and security,” she said. “It’s extremely important that Marco Rubio is coming to Iceland.”

The State Department said on Thursday that Rubio would discuss “economic and security collaboration” while in Iceland.

Although Iceland is a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, it has no army of its own and no troops are permanently stationed in the country. The U.S. had a military base at Keflavik until 2006.

“We will continue to be the eyes and ears of the alliance here in the north,” Gunnarsdóttir said.