This transcript was automatically generated and may contain errors.

It is a joint press meeting with Prime Minister and Ursula von der Leyen

President of the European Commission. Madam

President, welcome to Iceland. Prime Minister, the floor is yours. Thank you very much. Dear

President, dear Ursula, we're so happy to have you here in Iceland. we've had such

a fantastic day here and it's been very important for us to be able to

show you how we live here in Iceland. Iceland and the EU

has had a long standing and deep relationship over the course of decades now

we all know the EEA agreement, which opened up big doors of trade and opportunity

for us. We're also in cooperation when it comes to border control

in in terms of Schengen. And now we see ourselves in a different situation as

well in the geopolitical area which which has to do with this area that is

our backyard, the Arctic and security and defence. So we thought it would be very

fitting that we take this opportunity and have a press conference here in Kelavik Air

Base where you've been able to see how we have been using

our facilities as a host nation for NATO, a lot of interesting, Things

that we've seen here and you can see how a small country like Iceland can

truly be a good impact when it comes to the broader

region in terms of NATO but there's also an interest and

interest when it comes to defence in, in relation to Europe and

we know that Europe has been stepping up. Iceland is willing to step up and

so that's what we've been discussing here. I also wanna say. Before I go over

a set of deliverables that we've been agreeing on in the meeting here before that

I think it's very important for us to show you and the whole of Europe

how we view security and defence. We went on a helicopter ride. You saw

the natural environment that we live in, and I've always said that Icelanders have a

much more and bigger. Mindset that they think they have. We don't have a military

here, but Icelanders are used to living under natural uncertainty. we

have very strong civil protection here, very strong search and rescue, and this mindset is

going to transfer very well into other areas of defence, so

we are well prepared here for whatever might happen. we obviously

are, are facing these risks right now. You saw the, the volcanic eruption with your

with your very own eyes, and it was very interesting for us to go into

reenter. so there are challenges ahead, but there's also a lot of, opportunity

for cooperation going forward. we've discussed, briefly, and

and can happily share here if I just go over this before I give you

the word dear Ursula, that we've decided to launch negotiations on

a security and defence partnership, and this is something that we're hoping to finish by

the end of the year, maybe over the course of a couple of months, this

is very important for us. To show that we can have cooperation in critical infrastructure

civil protection, any sort of dual use defence investment, and this also

includes hybrid and and cyber threats. This is very important for Iceland and shows

that we have a deep trust between these two areas. I want to add to

that that we can announce. That we've concluded the negotiations

on our participation in the secure connectivity programme for those that don't know what

that means obviously Iceland is very dependent on cables

any type of of connectivity that comes here and helps us basically live our daily

lives here in Iceland, but also from a security perspective. and with this we

we, will get access to satellite backup, which is gonna be very important

for our, our defence here and way of life. I also wanna mention here trade

we are opening up, a comprehensive, trade review

that we haven't seen basically since we joined the EEA. So there's a lot of

opportunities there that I'm looking forward to, to seeing what comes out of. The Arctic

I know, is of interest to the EU and there we are active participants and

and they're looking forward to seeing what comes out of your Arctic strategy, so

there's a lot of interesting, focus points for us in cooperation, and I

just wanna say towards the end here, the Ursula, These are times

that truly call for calm and decisive leadership. I think you've shown the world, not

just Europeans, what an incredible leader you are, and we are very honoured that you

are here with us today and looking forward to an ongoing relationship. Thank

you. Thank you, Prime Minister. 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 it 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 Grindavik 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 Keflavi airbase. 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 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, Gov.com and Iris Square, 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 20,130

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

and the ambitions of future COP. My final

point is on fisheries. He 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 with me with you, and thank you very much for

the impressions you gave me on Iceland. 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 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. 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 Hat 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, Christian, 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

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 I. 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 Bla. 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.