Iceland in the Cold War the military protection of the United States, even if the economic benefits of the US military presence are gone. With the withdrawal of US forces, the country's military co-operation with other allied NATO countries, such as Norway, has increased. Iceland in the Cold War Throughout the Cold War, the nation of Iceland was a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and allied with the United States, hosting a US military presence in Keflavík Air Base from 1951 to 2006. In 1986, Iceland hosted a summit in Reykjavík between United States President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev,
Mikhail Gorbachev for five years. In July 2016, Gorbachev criticized the North Atlantic Treaty Organization amid escalating tensions between the military alliance and the Russian Federation. Gorbachev has accused NATO of preparing for a "hot" war against Russia, saying that "All the rhetoric in Warsaw just yells of a desire almost to declare war on Russia. They only talk about defence, but actually they are preparing for offensive operations." In June 2018, Gorbachev welcomed the 2018 Russia–United States summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Helsinki, Finland. In October 2018, Gorbachev criticized President Donald Trump's threat to withdraw from the 1987