Secretary of State Marco Rubio heads to Iceland on Monday at the start of a four-day trip to three NATO allies, as Washington presses its security interests in the Arctic two weeks after signing a defense agreement covering Greenland.
In Reykjavík, Rubio will meet Icelandic officials to discuss economic and security cooperation, the State Department said in announcing the Oct. 5-8 trip. He then goes on to Athens and Lisbon. No U.S. secretary of state has visited Iceland since Antony Blinken in 2021, according to Agence France-Presse.
Arctic focus after Greenland deal
President Donald Trump signed the Greenland agreement with the leaders of Denmark and Greenland on Sept. 22 in New York, on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. The accord lets the U.S. modernize and expand its operations at Pituffik Space Base and set up “defense areas” at Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig, and Trump told the General Assembly that the U.S. would be “building two very major military bases” on the island, The Associated Press reported. The deal eased months of tension over Trump’s push to take control of Greenland, a semiautonomous Danish territory, although he did not answer questions that day about whether acquiring it was off the table, the AP reported.
Iceland, a founding NATO member with no standing army, relies on the alliance and on a 1951 defense agreement with the United States for its security. The U.S. has no permanent base there, AFP reported, though Iceland hosts Keflavik Air Base and has supported Ukraine, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Robert Gerber, who served as a U.S. diplomat in Reykjavík, told RFE/RL that the visit could build on pledges Arctic nations made at a September meeting held alongside the General Assembly, including taking more responsibility for their own security and for guarding critical infrastructure. Gerber singled out the undersea data cables between North America and Europe as a candidate for joint protection. He also recalled Russian military aircraft looping around Iceland to test how quickly NATO fighters would respond.
“The threat is real there, and it’s been there for a long time,” Gerber said.
Ties have had strains. Iceland summoned the U.S. ambassador after Trump shared an AI-generated map in early September that showed Iceland, Greenland, the Caribbean and all of North America as part of the United States, AFP reported. Eric Green, a former National Security Council official who was once the No. 2 diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Reykjavík, told RFE/RL that Icelandic officials would look for reassurance that Washington has given up any claim to Greenland.
Energy and defense in Athens, Azores in Lisbon
Rubio’s second stop is Athens, where he will head the American team at the sixth round of the U.S.-Greece Strategic Dialogue on Oct. 6-7. Talks are expected to cover defense ties, energy and regional security, along with the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, RFE/RL reported. AFP noted that Greece is working to become a natural gas hub for southeastern Europe after the wars in Ukraine and Iran exposed weaknesses in energy supply chains.
Geoffrey Pyatt, a former U.S. ambassador to Greece who helped launch the dialogue in 2018, told RFE/RL that cooperation on defense, energy, education and investment has held steady under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Rubio’s final stop is Lisbon. Portugal Resident reported that his meetings there are expected to include Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel and Prime Minister Luís Montenegro. The State Department said the talks will focus on defense, economic and technology cooperation.
The visit comes as Portuguese prosecutors look into whether Portuguese officials could bear criminal responsibility for letting U.S. forces use Lajes Air Base in the Azores in the war against Iran. The Attorney General’s Office confirmed the inquiry on Friday, Portugal Resident reported, citing the weekly newspaper Expresso. It stems from an April complaint by the Left Bloc party that does not name any member of the government. Portugal’s government says U.S. flights made before it set formal conditions were covered by standing arrangements. Prosecutors have not disclosed whether anyone is a formal suspect, and the opening of an inquiry is not a finding of wrongdoing.
Portugal is also weighing a replacement for its F-16 fighter jets, with U.S.-made F-35s among the options.
What’s next
Rubio is scheduled to be in Athens on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the trip ends in Lisbon on Thursday. The State Department’s announcement did not mention any agreements to be signed. On Lajes, Rangel has said any review of the arrangement governing U.S. use of the base would have to wait until the Middle East conflict is over, according to Portugal Resident.
