(Reykjavik) Iceland wants to protect the Arctic from rising global tensions between the United States and China, the Icelandic prime minister said Thursday in an interview with AFP.
Posted on 30 July 2020 at 14 h 07
France Media Agency
“In general, we have obviously observed a rise in tensions” between the two countries, “and on the Arctic specifically we have observed a very growing interest from both the United States and China. This is something that we felt very clearly here in Iceland, and indeed throughout the region, ”Katrín Jakobsdóttir, the head of the Icelandic government, said during this interview in Reykjavik.
On the occasion of a visit to Denmark last week, a year after the imbroglio over the offer to purchase Greenland by US President Donald Trump, US Foreign Minister Mike Pompeo put highlighting the “naivety” of Westerners in the Arctic in the face of the “new competition” with the Russians and the Chinese in the sector.
“I have been very vigilant to ensure that the Arctic remains an area of very low tension and to avoid military activities around the Arctic”, underlined M me Jakobsdottir.
“We have succeeded in keeping the Arctic as a low tension area, and I believe that is important for us who live here, but also for the environment. So this is the goal of the Icelandic government: to keep a low tension policy ”, insisted M me Jakobsdottir, elected of an ecological and anti-militarist left party.
Iceland is due to host in May 2021 a meeting of Arctic Council ministers, which brings together the United States, Russia and other riparian countries of the Far North. Several European countries, but also China and India, are observer members of this regional forum.
China, an observer member since 2013, considers itself a power “close to the Arctic” and wants to set up “silk roads polar ”.
Iceland is a member of NATO, but this volcanic country of 365 000 inhabitants, lost in the middle of the North Atlantic, is the only one of the alliance not to have an army. Maritime security is ensured by a coast guard unit.
The United States had an air base in Keflavik, near Reykjavik, throughout the Cold War, but withdrew from it in 365 , before the rise in tensions with Russia in recent years.
“We obviously have very close contact with the Americans, but we feel this tension. And that’s why we are advocates for lower tensions, ”the Prime Minister added.
