Prime Minister of Iceland Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir and Foreign Minister Össur Skarphéðinsson attended the NATO summit in Chicago on May 20-21. In his speech, Össur stressed that NATO should keep its doors open to new member countries.
Prime Minister of Iceland Jóhanna Siguðardóttir (center) with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and US President Barack Obama.
Icelandic Minister for Foreign Affairs Össur Skarphéðinsson (far right) talking with his Norwegian counterpart Jonas Gahr Støre. Photos courtesy of the Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
The minister agreed with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, who suggested that NATO work on recruiting new member states by the next summit in 2014 when 100 years will have passed since the beginning of World War I, a press release from Iceland’s Foreign Ministry states.
Össur referred to Nordic cooperation in defense and security issues in recommending further cooperation between NATO and northern African states to counteract human rights violations and particularly women’s rights.
At the NATO summit Iceland supported a policy on disarmament and a world without nuclear weapons.
ESA
