Successful Northern Viking exercise comes to an end

Exercise Northern Viking 2024 came to an end this week, after eleven days of successful cooperation between Iceland and the United States, as well as seven other NATO Allies. The main focus was on credible defence of critical infrastructure, the rapid deployment of forces and materiel to Iceland and enhancing interoperability. 

"The exercise sends a strong message about defence commitments and provides an important opportunity to strengthen the cooperation of Icelandic agencies with our closest allies so that we can jointly deal with challenges and threats, whether they are of military nature or due to major natural disasters or other crises," said Foreign Minister Thórdís Kolbrún Reykfjörð Gylfadóttir in an address when she visited the area.

Some 1,200 people, including about 200 Icelanders, took part in the exercise this time, which is held on the basis of the bilateral defence agreement between Iceland and the United States from 1951 and normally takes place every two years.

Several ships, including from the Standing NATO Maritime Group, conducted maritime exercises, along with Coast Guard personnel on board the patrol ships Freyja and Þór.

In addition, key Icelandic agencies linked to security and defence related tasks- the Directorate for Defence of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Coast Guard, the office of the National Commissioner of Police and the National Hospital - used the exercise to train their national coordination as well as cooperation with Allied forces.

During Northern Viking 2024, participants represented nine Allied countries. They were, in addition to Iceland and the United States, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Portugal.