Iceland’s foreign minister hopes that the membership of Finland and Sweden will also expand NATO’s value base.
REYKJAVIK A battleship anchored in the old harbor, i.e. in the bay extending to the central area of the capital, tells the story of Iceland. The German flag is flying on the ship.
Located far away in the North Atlantic, Iceland has no army of its own. It is completely dependent on NATO for its defense.
Iceland’s 380,000 inhabitants have been dealing with this fact since the military union was established in 1949.
– I don’t even want to think about a situation where we are not in NATO, the country’s foreign minister Þórdís Kolbrún R. Gylfadóttir says in an interview with .
Support for NATO membership in Iceland has been close to 90 percent since Russia attacked Ukraine in February. NATO may be criticized, but its decisive importance for the island nation’s security is hardly questioned.
– Iceland would not survive in a world based on the use of force by individual countries. One where you could survive without punishment, if only you had more power, weapons and bad will than others. That is why it is also necessary that Ukraine wins the war currently going on in Europe, says Gylfadóttir.
“Values must be cherished, not taken away”
He considers Finland’s and Sweden’s probable NATO membership even revolutionary for the future of the entire military alliance.
– I believe that the membership of Finland and Sweden will, first of all, develop the relations of the Nordic countries even closer. But above all, it increases regional, European and entire NATO security.
NATO is an alliance of 30 member countries, where decisions are made unanimously. Because of this, no Nordic bloc can be formed within NATO, and according to Gylfadóttir, Iceland would not want one.
On the other hand, in the development work of NATO in the next few years, the shared value base of the Nordic countries will be very useful, prime minister Sanna Marini like the 35-year-old foreign minister dressed in a leather jacket believes.
The basic values of democracy, human rights, freedom of speech and equality are not self-evident even among NATO countries. Therefore, according to Gylfadóttir, they must also be displayed in defense cooperation.
– NATO was not founded on armies and weapons, but on a common base of values. The sayings must also be put into practice. Values must be cherished, not taken away from us, Gylfadóttir says.
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