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Iceland's president has offered Russia a strategic air base that served as a centerpiece of U.S. containment strategy in the Cold War.
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Icelandic President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson shocked foreign diplomats at a lunch in Reykjavik on Nov. 7 when he said Iceland should offer Russia the use of the former U.S. air base at Keflavik, the Dagbladet newspaper reported. Grimsson added that Iceland needs to make “new friends” on the international scene.

Keflavik is not just any air base. It was absolutely central to U.S. strategy in the North Atlantic throughout the Cold War (and in World War II before that). Washington used Keflavik to keep Russian submarines from entering the North Atlantic, and in World War II it served a critical transshipment point between the United States and Europe; without it, Moscow would have had full and direct access to the open seas via the Greenland-Iceland-U.K. (GIUK) Gap. The United States closed the Keflavik base in 2006.


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