Thank you, Prime Minister, dear Kristrún. Thank you very much for the very warm welcome here in

Iceland, and indeed it has been quite a day flying over the highlands

the glaciers. So for me the first time in my life that I saw that

this is impressive. It's a breathtaking beauty the landscape

has, very impressive, and what was also impressive today was the preparedness

mindset that you've just described that you have. You have as a country, of

course, a unique geostrategic position. And with that you have

developed a distinct approach, I would say, to security, resilience and foresight

You have learned to live with the risks. You have learned to manage the risk

and to master the risk. This is something I could see, and it was very

impressive for me with my visit to Grindavík to 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, impressive to

see that, so congratulations on that. Iceland's preparedness is not

just a policy, I would say it is a way of life. Europe has much

to learn from you in that respect, and it is with that backdrop that

I would like to look at the first point, the defence and security topics

You play a critical role, strategic role in NATO's Arctic and North Atlantic

posture. You are a strong and reliable ally. I saw this

firsthand indeed in the Keflavik Air Base. Your preparedness model rests

as you told me, on two solid foundations. One is NATO membership and the other

one is the bilateral agreement with the United States. And now

we try to strengthen and to add another layer to your security model, if I

might call it that way. I'm very pleased also that we are launching the talks

of the negotiations for a security and defence agreement. And like

you, I'm sure we will be done in a few weeks or months. This partnership

will bring Iceland into Europe's security and defence network too, in the wider

sense that you have just described. It already counts 8 partners

including Norway, the UK, and Canada, and with this Security and

defence Partnership Agreement, you would start to have access to our SAFE programme

This is our €150 billion joint procurement programme

that could also then be of interest to you. Through the new partnership

we will be able to cooperate more closely also on hybrid threats that

we see on civil protection, for example, as I said there, we can learn a

lot from you too and on the whole topic of cybersecurity, just to name a

few topics. My second point is indeed on the Arctic

I saw today the ice is melting and new realities are emerging

with that process. Right in, as you called it Iceland's backyard. Russia

and China increasingly both their economic activities and their strategic presence

in this region. And we know that Europe must adapt to these new

realities, and this is why we will review our Arctic strategy to

ensure that it is fit for the challenges of our time, and here is for

us very important to have a very close exchange of views with you, because, as

I said, from your unique strategic position. we

can learn a lot from you and you have a different view on the Arctic

of course, and a different experience of the Arctic. We also of course want to

work together with you when it comes to strengthen the protection of our critical infrastructure

including subsea cables and power grids. This was also a discussion point today

and it was impressive to see how you prepare for potential attacks on this

critical infrastructure, and we want to team up, as I said, on cyber resilience and

the secure communications. In this sense, I'm very glad that we've

settled Iceland's participation in the EU's government satellite communication

programme, in short, GovSatCom and Iris², our space based

connectivity system that is certainly as a backup for you

of enormous importance. My 3rd point is on climate. It

is the defining challenge of our times. And

it is highly visible here in Iceland, where the glaciers are losing billions of tonnes

of ice each year, and I could see the impact that it has on nature

here. Your ambition to reach carbon neutrality by 2040 is a

strong and a very necessary signal. Impressive, Europe is also on the right path

to climate neutrality by 2050. Earlier this month, we have proposed

our climate target for 2040. In our

talks we could both see that our ambitions are very much aligned

so this is why we have agreed to step up our cooperation on climate beyond

2030, in particular, to work closely together to achieve the Paris Agreement

targets and the ambitions of future sea of peace. My

final point is on fisheries. Here also, we've 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 European Union. We signed this week. It will strengthen

our cooperation. On fisheries governance and the biodiversity of our ocean and

our shared resources, so it's been a packed day. It's not ended

yet. Thank you very much for hosting me with you, and thank you very

much for the impressions you gave me on Iceland. Thank you