Agreed Minute

The Agreed Minute was a statute governing the nature of the U.S. military presence in Iceland from 1994 to 2006.

In 1951 American troops returned to Iceland to form an Iceland Defense Force. As Iceland has had no standing military of its own since World War II, while Soviet threat heightened and thus requiring standing defences.

After the Cold War ended, U.S. forces were constrained by the financial situation and were yearning to leave Iceland. While Icelandic politicians disagreed with such a move. Hence the Agreed Minute, signed in 1994 where both parties compromised and came to an understanding.

The Agreed Minute was last renegotiated in 2001. At the time, the U.S. Air Force committed itself to maintaining four to six interceptors at the Keflavík base, supported by a helicopter rescue squad. The Air Force, in order to cut costs, announced plans to remove the four remaining jets in 2003. The removal was then delayed to address Icelandic demands for continued presence of the jets. After an unfruitful series of negotiations and two reshufflings of the Icelandic government the issue lay dormant until early 2006 when the U.S. Air Force issued an official statement that withdrawal of the aircraft was already being prepared. U.S. officials have since then argued that Iceland is in no need of U.S. military presence and the last remaining soldiers left Iceland during September 2006.