Dear Kristrún,
Thank you for your warm welcome to Iceland. It has been quite a day flying over the highlands and glaciers of your breath-taking country. But it is not just Iceland's renowned beauty that is so impressive; your preparedness mindset is just as striking. As a country with a unique geostrategic position, Iceland has developed a distinct approach to security, resilience, and foresight. You have learnt to live with risk, to manage and master it. I was deeply impressed by my visit to Grindavík where I could see how you manage the risk, how you live with it and how you adapt to it but also master it, and meeting the Icelandic Association for Search and Rescue was also an eye opener, to see the capabilities they have. Congratulations on that. In Iceland, preparedness is not just a policy, it is a way of life. Europe has much to learn from Iceland in that respect.
This brings me to my first point: defence and security. Iceland plays a critical and strategic role in NATO's Arctic and North Atlantic posture. You are a strong and reliable Ally, I saw this firsthand at Keflavík Air Base. Your preparedness model rests on two solid foundations: NATO membership and the bilateral agreement with the United States. And now we are strengthening and adding another layer to your security model: I am pleased that we are launching talks for negotiation on a Security and Defence Partnership Agreement. Like you I am sure we will be done in a few weeks or months. This will bring Iceland into Europe's Security and Defence network in the wider sense you have already described. It already counts 8 partners including Norway, the UK and Canada. You also have access to SAFE, our EUR 150 billion joint defence procurement programme that could also be of interest to you. Through our new partnership, we will be able to cooperate more closely also on hybrid threats that we see, on civil protection, but also on the whole topic of cybersecurity just to name a few.
My second point is on our shared region: the Arctic. I saw it today, the ice is melting, new realities are emerging. Right in Iceland's backyard, Russia and China are increasing both their economic activity and strategic presence in the region. Europe must adapt to these new realities. This is why we will review our Arctic Strategy, to ensure it is fit to the challenges of our time. Here it is for us very important to have a very close exchange of views with you, because as I said we can learn a lot from you and your unique geostrategic position, and you have a different view on the Arctic and a different experience of the Arctic. We want also to work together with you to strengthen the protection of critical infrastructure, including subsea cables and power grids. This also was a discussion point today, and it was impressive to see how you prepare for potential attacks on these critical infrastructures. And we went also to team up on cyber resilience and secure communications. In this sense, I am very glad that we have settled Iceland's participation in the EU's Governmental Satellite Communication programme – Govsatcom – and IRIS² – our space-based connectivity system. That is certainly as a back-up for you of enormous importance.
My third point is on climate. This is the defining challenge of our time, and it is highly visible here in Iceland, where glaciers are losing billions of tonnes of ice each year and we can definitely see the impact that it has on nature here. Your ambition to reach carbon neutrality by 2040 is a strong and necessary signal, it is impressive. Europe is also on the right path to climate neutrality by 2050. Earlier this month we have proposed our climate target for 2040. Our ambitions are aligned. This is why we have agreed to step up our cooperation on climate beyond 2030. In particular, we will work closely together to reach the Paris Agreement targets and the ambitions of future COPs.
My final point is on fisheries. Here also, we have reached an important milestone last week or a few days ago. We have a new Memorandum of Understanding on fisheries and ocean affairs between Iceland and the EU. We signed it this week. It will strengthen our cooperation on fisheries governance, and biodiversity of our ocean, our shared resources.
It has been a packed day, it has not ended yet. Thank you very much for hosting me and thank you very much for the impression you gave me of Iceland.
