Iceland keeps US security ties despite Trump concerns

Iceland is maintaining its reliance on the United States and NATO for security despite concern over President Donald Trump’s rhetoric, after voters rejected reopening suspended European Union membership talks.

Iceland has had no military since independence in 1944. It is a founding member of NATO and also depends on a 1951 bilateral defence agreement with the United States.

The country already has access to the EU single market through the European Economic Area. By voting against resuming EU membership talks last weekend, Icelanders kept a status quo combining European economic integration with Atlantic defence ties.

Trump’s repeated threats to take control of Greenland, a Danish autonomous territory fewer than 300 kilometres from Iceland, and his trade confrontation with Canada have rattled Iceland. Jonas Allansson, Iceland’s chief of defence, said the political rhetoric was concerning but that Iceland should also try to strengthen the relationship.

The United States closed its Keflavik base in 2006 after the Cold War, then gradually returned from the mid-2010s as tensions with Moscow rose. US Navy maritime patrol aircraft now regularly deploy over Iceland, while NATO members police its skies and increase exercises.

Iceland is important to the GIUK gap, the strategic corridor between Greenland, Iceland and the United Kingdom. The route is used by Russia’s Northern Fleet submarines to reach the Atlantic via the Norwegian Sea.

Iceland says it wants to act as a North Atlantic “watchtower” and a “force multiplier” for NATO, investing in cybersecurity and infrastructure for allied use. Reykjavik plans to devote 1.5 percent of GDP to these efforts by 2035.

The policy has critics. Anti-military campaigner Stefan Palsson said it was irresponsible to open Iceland so widely to the United States and NATO, arguing that more military infrastructure could make Iceland more likely to be drawn into conflict.

Mikaa Blugeon-Mered, a geopolitics researcher at the University of Quebec, said EU membership would not allow Iceland simply to replace the US security umbrella with a European one. He said Trump’s threats had revived Iceland’s European debate but had not convinced Icelanders that the EU would offer stronger military guarantees.