Foreign relations of Iceland Foreign relations of Iceland Iceland's closest relations are with Norway and other Nordic states, Canada and the United States. Iceland hosted the historic 1986 Reagan-Gorbachev summit in Reykjavík, which set the stage for the end of the Cold War. Iceland's principal historical international disputes involved disagreements over fishing rights. Conflict with the United Kingdom led to the so-called Cod Wars in 1952–56 because of the extension of the fishing zone from 3 to 4 nautical miles (6 to 7 km), 1958–61 because of extending the fishing zone to 12 nautical miles (22 km) in 1972–73 because of its further extension
Collapse of the Atlantic northwest cod fishery with these new statistics brought to light no changes were made in regards to the allotted yearly catch of cod. With only a limited knowledge of cod biology, scientists predicted that the population of the species would rebound from its low point in 1975 and when Canada extended its fishing boundaries in 1976, fish mortality decreased immediately. This was not due to a rise in cod stocks, it was because foreign trawlers could no longer fish the waters. Therefore, when Fisheries and Oceans set quotas, they overestimated the total stock, and increased the total allowable catch. In 1992, John Crosbie,