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Bobbdobbs, there has of course been a huge reduction in US presence here, but now the disagreement is on what should be the minimum defences and who should pay what. I beliewe minimum defences should be in accordance to the NATO commitment of no country in it should be without Air Defences. Four jets in operation is Iceland´s demand, wich is the current situation after a huge reduction. I can agree with that demand.

As to how much either of us should pay, I can agree with us paying more, but then those payments should not be like us renting a service from the US, but more of Icelanders taking more responsibility over our own defences. That could be f.e. us taking over the security and running of the air base, taking over the radar operations and such, and thus pay for those things ourselves.

That would of course meen even more reduction of US personel. But one thing we can´t handle ourselfs is Air Defences. That should be based on the old agreement still, wich is the basis for the talks between our respected governments.

11Bush, marron, Prodigal Son, The Noodle, thanks for kind words. Noodle this is the agreement wich the talks are based on, hopefully that will not be disbanded. Marron, Iceland is not going to join the EU if I can, and my party, have anything to say about it, you are correct it would suffocate us. I beliewe the Polish aproach is the wrong one, rather should we create an option for European countries, f.e. with the merging of EFTA (dwindling competitor to the EU Iceland and Norway are part of) and NAFTA into a TAFTA (Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Association), a continued good relations between Europe and the US is the most importantant for us, beeing in the middle.

Others, I think nobody is actually talking about forcing anyone. Except if in the agreement talks the Icelandic government would say we want this, and if we won´t get it, the agreement is terminated. I don´t beliewe that to be the right aproach, but I do not trust the Progressives (and certeinly not the Social democratic Union) for not doing that to force the US to disband the agreement and thus beeing able to say:

"See the US, they do not care about us, they have just beeing using us, so lets return to the European fold, where everyone is cooperating (under socialistic authoritarian system) for the advancement of Europe", wich is of course an Anti-American statement in disguise. I urge you to reread my comment, so you can see that this statement is not the important thing about this article.

"As to how much either of us should pay, I can agree with us paying more, but then those payments should not be like us renting a service from the US, but more of Icelanders taking more responsibility over our own defenses. That could be f.e. us taking over the security and running of the air base, taking over the radar operations and such, and thus pay for those things ourselves."

I can understand why that would be desirable for Iceland, but I can also see why we are very unlikely to agree to it.

The air base appears to be of significant strategic importance to us, and we've made a huge investment there. If we allow your people to take control of the security and running most of the base, we lose control of the installation and we become increasingly dependent on the political cooperation of your government.

If your government shifts towards supporting the EU or decided to fall in line with the UN policy of do nothing and don't let anyone else do anything either, our military is left with a blind spot, and with decreased capacity due to losing an important airfield.

Your country is a sovereign nation, and can still bar us from using that base if they choose to do so, but it's harder with us running the base, and it gives us a bit of protection against political fluctuations in your government.

I'm sure this is leading to some tough negotiations. That's far from surprising. I believe that it is in our best interest to maintain a military presence in your country and maintain our productive alliance. The details however, can be difficult to work out, especially if part of your government is leaning toward the EU.