Madam President, Prime Minister, and now we will take a few questions from the media

starting with the Icelandic Broadcasting Service. Thank you, Madam

President, welcome to Iceland. my name is Pierre Moquist. I'm from Icelandic National Broadcasting Service

based in Brussels actually, I wanted to ask you about, specifically

about security and defence since you already announced this new talks about the bilateral

security agreements. In this context, you know, the Icelandic

government is planning a referendum about resuming the, you know, the accession talks to the

with the EU. And as you've said yourself on many occasions, enlargement of the EU

now has a distinct geopolitical dimension because of Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine

Given what you just announced with the with the talks about the

new security agreement, how do you see Iceland fitting into this puzzle that is the

sort of the geopolitical enlargement of Europe, of the EU, and

what benefits would Iceland bring in this context to the European Union? So

very important is the decision on that is with the Icelandic people. Of

course, the Icelandic people have to decide on how close we

want to be and how to move forward. I think it is

important to recall that Iceland's application to the European membership is still valid

That's very interesting. The country is well equipped to undertake this process. We have the

EEA, so Iceland is familiar and integrated

in the single market. We share values. We know each other very

well. We are like-minded, so we're close partners. We share

the core values. All this is an asset. And

I think again it is very important that the Icelandic people decide

on how they want to shape their future. But I think listening to the two

of us, you see how much we have in common, how much potential there is

untapped potential that we could develop. so this speaks for

a very close partnership. Maybe I can just add on this, obviously

we know a referendum on reopening the talks

is on the agenda, but I also want to say that we've up

until this point had a very strong relationship aside from that with the EU

And this security and defence partnership is something that the European Union has

done with Norway, with Canada, with other countries that are not members of the

EU, but this just shows how well aligned that we are that there are great

opportunities, going forward, and that just this just further segments our relationship

together, But we've obviously gone over the security dimension

with Ursula and also when we met with NATO leaders in

Hague just a few weeks ago of the position, the strategic position of Iceland, which

is obviously I would say one of its biggest assets and, and you see here

how we're able to build on that that our. Facilities are the biggest thing that

we bring to the table. This security and defence partnership would be another

layer to what we already have with the US, with NATO. That's obviously always going

to be the vital factor in our defences here, but it's very important during these

types of times in history that we broaden our scope and we have good allies

everywhere. Thank you and now news agency. Hello

Welcome to Iceland, Madam President. My name is Hats Korposts. I'm a reporter at

scene. you're seeing, in your visit now in Iceland

how civil defence works in a crisis, and for the past

few months Iceland's position as a key member of defence for NATO and Europe has

been reiterated. How do you see Iceland's role in this defence and how has it

been watching key operators working today? And if I may, Kristrún, ask you about this

trade. Agreement to review what are you mostly looking at? Did I get your question

right? It's on civil protection. Yeah, well, this is impressive what I learned and saw

today how wide the scope is because you live

at this place on the globe and you have to master all the risks

so we can learn a lot. You have a whole of society approach. Very

strongly relying on voluntary input from each and everybody. I think

this is one of the big big strengths of your model. You have a 360

degree look at risks and how to manage them, so it's not

a narrow approach to let's say traditional security, but it's a wide approach

that is embedded in the whole society or carried by the whole of society. And

which is very strongly also calling on each and every

individual's responsibility for the whole of society. So that is impressive to see. On

the other hand, it's highly modern what equipment is concerned, so

that you're able to search and rescue in the widest sense, but also to

protect yourself, protect, for example, your critical infrastructure. I learned about the

exercises you're doing to protect the critical infrastructure and so far that

you're training what happens in case that a data cable, one of the crucial data

cable is being attacked. severe and hurt severely and

by doing these exercises you learn where the gaps are that you have to fill

but also where the strengths are that you have to multiply. So very impressive

and something as I said, where we can learn from each other. just

before I go into the, the trade question very briefly, you know, we have this

saying in Iceland, or sometimes an outsider's

perspective makes you realise that the grand scheme of things, and there's been a lot

of discussions about security and defence in Europe now, especially, obviously in the US as

well, but Europe's stepping up. Iceland has been a, has been a member of these

discussions, and I think a lot of Icelanders feel like that this is something very

far from us. because we don't have a military, we haven't been active participants in

that sense. But what you see is when this all comes together in a day

like this is how prepared we are for a lot of

the issues that are coming up really this resilience mindset, this, this, this preparedness mindset

that Ursula is talking about and I think sometimes Icelanders are not aware that this

DNA that we have in us, it's not necessarily to be found everywhere the way

we think about being prepared and so we will always be playing on our strengths

when it comes to security and defence. There's not gonna be a change in in

how we And how we address those, and that's why it's so important for us

to be able to show, the, the, the president how we do things just briefly

on trade, I mean we obviously are part of the EEA, but we haven't

been, we don't have full market access when it comes to the products and so

we have tariffs and there's some some market barriers. this is something that we're gonna

be looking into. This is a big change for us or could be a big

change if we see opportunities there because this review hasn't taken place since we joined

the EEA. We obviously have things that we specifically want to discuss. I can point

here for. for example, fish, the access of of seafood and those types of products

into the EU, but this is obviously still something that has not been discussed

We're just open to having these negotiations, and I see great opportunities

on, on that end, but this dialogue is is just starting. Thank you and the

final question from Morgan Bladen. Madam President, my name is Herman

from the Daily morning paper. The Icelandic government plans to apply for EU membership

for the 2nd time and already seeks alignment with the community and foreign policy and

other areas. However, one of the coalition parties is against joining the EU

as are all the opposition parties. Doesn't that make any accession talks moot

if there isn't a parliamentary majority for joining? And if I may add, I

would like to ask why you insisted that the media send the questions in writing

a day before the press conference. Are you unable to answer unscripted questions? So

the last part of your question is not known to me. the

first part of your question, it's a sovereign decision that the Icelandic people

take here. so it is dependent

on the policies and the discussions in Iceland, so it's not a topic

for me to comment on. I mean, I can comment on this briefly, and

I think the way Ursula is answering this question is very emblematic of how the

EU is is approaching these types of topics. They know this is a sovereign decision

we have said. That the referendum is not now on joining the EU. It's whether

we go for these talks again. This is gonna take up some oxygen in our

system, but we think it's well worth it. We, however, want to get a mandate

from the Icelandic public. All three coalition parties agree that we should have this referendum

And this third party that you're referring to wants to respect whatever decision comes out

of that referendum like every other party in this coalition. I will respect whether it's

a yes or a no, and the other coalition parties will respect whether it's a

yes or no. So at this point this is where we're at. We will see

what comes out of the referendum. I think that is the ultimate mandate. I will

say that we get the people to say what their thoughts are on this matter

and like I said, we have a willingness that is very clear within the coalition

that we will respect whatever comes out of this referendum. Thank you, and with

that we conclude this press meeting. Thank you.