Iceland's leader won't be around to welcome Pence
Reykjavik on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Egill Bjarnason)
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — Iceland's leader has announced that she will skip U.S. Vice President Mike Pence's visit to her Nordic nation, opting instead to keep "prior commitments" by attending a trade union conference and meetings in Sweden.
Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir said that she's planned for months to give the keynote speech for the Council of Nordic Trade Unions' annual meeting in Malmo, Sweden, on Sept. 3 — the day before Pence's arrival. She will only return the afternoon of Sept. 4 after private meetings with Nordic union leaders, her office said.
"This visit, that was organized by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, has been bouncing a lot around the calendar so that it has been very difficult to organize oneself around it," she told Icelandic broadcaster RUV on Tuesday. Her office Wednesday confirmed that she had not changed her mind.
She also underscored that the arrangement was "absolutely not" about snubbing the Trump administration and that she had earlier this year met with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The decision was made before President Donald Trump announced that he would cancel a visit to another Nordic nation, Denmark.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/icelands-leader-wont-be-around-to-welcome-pence/ar-AAG7Tsz?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout#image=AAG7Tsz_1|2
= new reply since forum marked as read
