Icelandic Foreign Minister Gudlaugur Thor Thordarson | Maurizio Gambarini/AFP via Getty Images Icelandic foreign minister to UK: Please join EFTA ‘Everyone wants to sell you goods and services,’ minister says.

Iceland would like Britain to join the European Free Trade Association after Brexit, Icelandic Foreign Minister Guðlaugur Thór Thórðarson said Tuesday.

“They [the U.K.] could definitely join EFTA," he told BBC Radio 4's Today program, "and I think it would strengthen EFTA at least to have cooperation with Britain."

Thórðarson added that EFTA would gain more power in trade negotiations if Britain joined.

“It is quite clear that when Britain starts to negotiate their own free-trade deal, then everyone wants to make a free-trade deal with Britain. You are the fifth largest economy in the world. Everyone wants to sell you goods and services. It’s as simple as that,” he said.

Thórðarson argued the EFTA allows Iceland access to the single market while avoiding the EU’s mandatory “political integration.”

“We were probably the poorest nation in Western Europe in the beginning of the last century. Now we are quite wealthy. And the reason, one of the reasons, is a fundamental thing, that we have access to other markets and our markets are open,”Thórðarson said.

Thórðarson attributed Iceland’s increased wealth to free trade. He added that any restrictions resulting from the U.K. leaving the EU without a trade deal would harm Europe.