Rubio woos NATO member Iceland after Greenland deal

Washington and Reykjavik are downplaying tensions as the Pentagon seeks to expand its Arctic footprint US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has praised Iceland for allowing Washington to “project power” from the North Atlantic island nation into the Arctic. Iceland is strategically positioned to help the Pentagon monitor Arctic airspace and conduct missions tracking Russian submarines in the Atlantic, not unlike Denmark’s autonomous territory of Greenland, which US President Donald Trump had notoriously threatened to annex. The US president and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen have signed an agreement to substantially increase Washington’s military presence there.

On Tuesday in Iceland, which joined NATO when it was created in 1949, Rubio praised Rejkyavik for allowing “the US military to project power using your land, your air, your sea, giving us a critical outpost for monitoring clandestine behavior and deterring our adversaries. ” Icelanders give cold shoulder to EU’s ‘bureaucrats and warmongering’ (VIDEO) The secretary stressed that Washington would not take action in Iceland without Reykjavik’s consent. Questions about US intentions were renewed last month after Trump posted an image showing North America and nearby islands covered in the Stars and Stripes, including Greenland and Iceland. Foreign Minister Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir responded by summoning US Ambassador Billy Long to lodge a protest. Rubio and Gunnarsdottir both played down the diplomatic incident at their joint press conference. ”We’re not talking about social media posts,” Rubio said, while Gunnarsdottir said the two governments “are looking forward, not backward. ” . @SecRubio on Trump social media post depicting U. S. acquisition of Iceland: "We're not talking about social media posts,…