Rubio visits Iceland ‘to discuss security collaboration’ as US boosts Arctic presence

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel Monday to Iceland to continue pressing US interests in the Arctic, two weeks after Washington sealed a security pact on Greenland. Rubio will meet with officials in Reykjavik "to discuss economic and security collaboration", the US State Department said in a statement announcing the trip. Read moreUS, Denmark and Greenland sign security deal to bolster Arctic security The lightning visit, as symbolic as it is political, comes after the US signed a security pact with Denmark and Greenland in late September on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The agreement has apparently put an end to President Donald Trump's threats to buy or even annex Greenland, which soured relations with the EU. Under the pact, Washington plans to establish two new military bases on Greenland, drawing the autonomous Danish territory further into US orbit. With competition on the rise in the Arctic, Iceland has regained status as a strategic player, even as the island continues to rely heavily on the United States for security. At the start of September, Trump sparked new controversy by sharing an AI-generated map that appeared to show...