Rice and Gisladottir discuss women and war

Condoleezza RiceCondoleezza Rice held a joint press conference in Iceland this week with Iceland’s Foreign Minister Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir. The two discussed a number of issues ranging from the treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay to the empowerment of women. The event took place at the Hofdi House, a historic setting in Reykjavik.

The visit by the US Secretary of State took place at a significant time in the history of Iceland, according to Gisladottir’s opening remarks. She pointed out that American troops had participated in the defence of Iceland for the past 55 years and have only recently withdrawn.

According to Gisladottir, she and Rice discussed the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325. “Iceland will aim to commit resources to establishing a website as a vehicle of communication between members of the Women’s Leaders Group which, actually, Secretary Rice founded several years ago,” Gisladottir said.

Rice agreed. She said: “The empowerment of women worldwide is something that we feel very deeply about. Obviously, no society can be really effective if 50 percent of its people are somehow disenfranchised, and in so much of the world that is, unfortunately, still the case.”

Other topics covered included whaling, the peace process in the Middle East and defence issues in Afghanistan.

Rice said: “We have had an opportunity to talk about Afghanistan and the very significant contribution of Iceland there. And I appreciate Iceland’s willingness to continually review its contribution in Afghanistan.”