Icelandic PM will not be home when US Vice President visits Iceland

Icelandic Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir won’t be home when US Vice President Mike Pence visits Iceland on September 4. She will be in Malmö, Sweden, attending the Council of Nordic Trade Unions, Iceland Monitor reports. 

Her decision to prioritize this way has caught attention worldwide. “Several months ago, I agreed to be the keynote speaker at the Council of Nordic Trade Unions, which happens to take place those days, and I haven’t seen any reason to change that plan,” she told Morgunblaðið on August 17. 

The decision to attend the conference was, therefore, made long before US President Trump canceled his state visit to Denmark, due to the Danish PM’s calling his idea of purchasing Greenland from Denmark “absurd.” Still, Russia Today wonders if Katrín is with her decision showing Nordic solidarity.

Pia Hansson, head of the Institute for International Affairs, told RÚV TV’s Kastljósnews analysis program last night that Katrín is not the one hosting Pence’s visit. The host, instead, is Minister for Foreign Affairs Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson, and his ministry organizes the visit.