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Are Iceland's relations with its neighbours (does it even have any?) as weird as this article suggests, or is this merely Google Translate being creative?
It is pointed out in the report that, contrary to this position, 44 per cent of Icelanders believe that Iceland is neutral in military matters. This misunderstanding of Iceland's position - or perhaps rather wishful thinking - will be reflected in a study from 2018 on Icelanders' view of foreign and security issues, which also states that 57 per cent of respondents believe that fornication and peaceful relations with neighboring countries will ensure Iceland's security. only 17 percent believe that membership of NATO contributes to it.
by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Tue Apr 2nd, 2019 at 11:44:57 AM EST
Icelandic is the trickiest of the Scandinavian languages (at least to me), but as far as I can tell the translation is correct.

Iceland is pretty isolated and hasn't seen much of military conflict. They have no army, and the Coast Guard is their main military branch.

by fjallstrom on Tue Apr 2nd, 2019 at 12:26:34 PM EST
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Sorry. I forgot that not everybody here will be familiar with archaic English terms. Check what "fornication" means.....
by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Tue Apr 2nd, 2019 at 12:32:35 PM EST
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I read your extract to fast :)

"her­leysi og frið­sam­leg tengsl" is the tricky part. I would translate "frið­sam­leg tengsl" to "peaceful relationships", so it seems Google stumble on "herleysi". "Her" is military (like in German) and "-leysi" appears to be "-lack of / -absence of". So something like lack of military, but in a positive sense. No biblical relationships mentioned.

by fjallstrom on Tue Apr 2nd, 2019 at 01:16:20 PM EST
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The Keflavik air station is a former US Navy station now owned by the Icelandic Coast Guard.  Various NATO people come through and use it every now and then for various reasons.  The latest is the US Navy wants to upgrade the largest hanger to fit the next generation of anti-submarine aircraft: Boeing P-8 Poseidon.

Whether the P-8 will attack submarines with on-board weaponry or just fall on it doing the 'Kamikaze-From-the-Sky Thing' is unknown.

Iceland has 26 diplomatic missions in 21 countries of the world.  There are "honorary councils" - whatever that means - in 90 countries.  Otherwise it uses its mission to the UN for all other needed international interactions.  

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

by ATinNM on Tue Apr 2nd, 2019 at 04:32:06 PM EST
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An honorary consul is an unpaid leader of a minor consulate (with or without payed staff). For small countries appointing a prominent citizen who happens to live in the foreign country as their honorary consul is a cheap way to have some diplomatic representation. They can usually handle passport and visas and such.
by fjallstrom on Tue Apr 2nd, 2019 at 05:17:36 PM EST
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So there are people from the Central African Republic and Chad who just "happen" to live in Liechtenstein....
by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Tue Apr 2nd, 2019 at 05:22:28 PM EST
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If they happening to live in Liechtenstein, they are surely persons of importance!

If it is a general consule they are salaried diplomats, as I understand it.

I am not exactly sure about these rules. Maybe they don't always have to be citizens of the appointing country?

by fjallstrom on Tue Apr 2nd, 2019 at 10:56:08 PM EST
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Honorary consuls are quite often not citizens of the countries they represent. Anyone from a small country knows that, surely...

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II
by eurogreen on Thu Apr 4th, 2019 at 07:23:57 AM EST
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US considered Cold War nuclear deployments in Iceland | Icelanf Monitor - 2016 |

American officials conducted secret talks in the 1950s on storing nuclear weapons in Iceland without informing Icelandic authorities, it has emerged.

According to recently declassified documents in the US National Security Archive, US government officials debated whether or not to deploy nuclear weapons in Iceland, "including through secret deployments".

They were dissuaded from doing so by a letter from Tyler Thompson, then US ambassador to Iceland, who warned of the severe negative consequences of Iceland finding out about such action.

The secret storage of nuclear weapons in Iceland could, Thompson feared, if discovered, lead to a "dramatic row" and Iceland's departure from NATO.

Such revelations could "be expected to have an unfortunate effect on our friends and allies, to affect adversely our interests as far as neutrals are concerned, and to provide a propaganda field day for our enemies," Thompson writes.

All references to `Iceland' are obscured in the documentation, but the context makes it clear that Iceland was the subject.  

The Crash, The Inuit, And The Bomb

Related reading ...

WikiLeaks registers company in Iceland (2010)

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Tue Apr 2nd, 2019 at 06:11:18 PM EST
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