ICELAND’S long-isolated existence was broken by World War II and the Cold War when its strategic location at the gateway to the North Atlantic and the Arctic were key to the defense of NATO and the United States. But with the disintegration of the Soviet Union the island country seemed again to pass into irrelevance, and in 2006 the last American military aircraft were withdrawn from the Keflavik Air Base. Now the situation is changing again, as the melting north polar ice opens new ocean routes and access to vast natural resources.

According to a 2008 estimate by the U.S. Geological Survey, 13 percent of all the unexploited oil, 30 percent of natural gas and 20 percent of the natural gas liquid resources are located under the seabed of the Arctic. Iceland is an ideal location to base ocean research, drilling and support for extraction and transport. The shrinking polar ice also introduces a revolutionary change in ocean transport between Asia and Europe — the Northeast Polar Passage would reduce transport costs by as much as 40 percent as compared with the traditional route via the Suez Canal.

Once again, Iceland has become a strategic gateway, and among the nations that are showing a growing interest in the country is China. The time has come for the United States to strengthen its relationship with Iceland.

With the Ilulissat Declaration of 2008, five member states of the Arctic Council — the United States, Canada, Denmark-Greenland, Norway and Russia, joined by Iceland, Sweden and Finland — declared their jurisdictional rights in the Arctic Region under the terms of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.