Iceland

Arctic Council Adds Six Members, Including China

Jorge Benitez — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:00:16 -0500

From Steven Lee Myers, New York Times: The Arctic Council agreed on Wednesday to expand to include six new nations, including China, as observer states, as a changing climate opens the Arctic to increasing economic and political competition.

Iceland has become an object of inordinate interest to Chinese policymakers

Jorge Benitez — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 08:29:32 -0500

From T. P., Economist: With a population of 320,000—just one tenth that of the Beijing district where it keeps its embassy to China—Iceland has recently become an object of inordinate interest to Chinese policymakers.

Iceland would like to join NATO Cyber Defense Center

Jorge Benitez — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 08:30:00 -0500

From Postimees: At his meeting in Reykjavik with Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet, Icelandic Foreign Minister Össur Skarphéðinsson said that Iceland would like to join the NATO Cyber Defence Centre located in Tallinn.

64th Anniversary of the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty

Jorge Benitez — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:06:56 -0500

From Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State: In this agreement, the United States, Canada, Belgium, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the United Kingdom agreed to consider attack against one an attack against all, along with consultations about threats and defense matters.

Canada deploys 'mostly' unarmed jets to NATO air policing mission over Iceland

Jorge Benitez — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 12:28:27 -0500

From Canada's Department of National Defense: A Royal Canadian Air Force detachment of six CF-18 Hornet jet fighters will patrol Iceland’s airspace from Keflavik Air Base during Operation Ignition in March and April of this year.

A Nordic defensive shield

Jorge Benitez — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 14:22:35 -0500

From Edward Lucas, European Voice: In Iceland, after much haggling and delay, Finland and Sweden are to take part in a new Nordic Air Policing mission, led by NATO members Norway and Denmark, from 2014.

China's growing interest in Iceland and the Arctic

Jorge Benitez — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:17:30 -0500

From Einar Benediktsson and Thomas R. Pickering, New York Times: According to a 2008 estimate by the U.S. Geological Survey, 13 percent of all the unexploited oil, 30 percent of natural gas and 20 percent of the natural gas liquid resources are located under the seabed of the Arctic.

Visegrad, Nordic and Baltic foreign ministers call for 'tangible measures for improving European crisis management capabilities'

Jorge Benitez — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 11:30:13 -0600

From Carl Bildt and Radoslaw Sikorski, Foreign Ministry of Poland: It was agreed that Visegrad, Nordic and Baltic countries due to their geographic proximity, shared values and interest had an important role to play in promoting democracy, rule of law and security.