North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allied Command Operations
September 11, 2014
SACEUR VISITS ICELAND
Reykjavik, Iceland Wednesday 10 September 2014. SACEUR General Phil Breedlove, visited Iceland where he met with both Prime Minister Gunnlaugsson and Foreign Minister Sveinsson. At the meeting with the Foreign Minister, SACEUR discussed recent events in Ukraine and how the posture of Russia has led to all NATO allies having to re-evaluate the relationship with Russia.
At a meeting with the press in Reykjavik, SACEUR, stated “Among other things that the paradigm of how we think about relationships in Europe has changed.” He added “That we thought that the times where a border would be changed by force was over in Europe, and now we see that that is not the case.”
Iceland Foreign Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson (left) with SACEUR General Phil Breedlove at the press conference after the meeting. Photo courtesy: Icelandic Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
SACEUR moreover stated “For the past twelve years, NATO has been making decisions about basing, where our forces are, how our forces are deployed, based on Russia as a partner. However, what we see now is that we have to re-evaluate our force presence, our basing, our posture for a Russia that is determined to not be a partner and how that will affect us in the future.”
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