Relations between Iceland and India offer a window into the diplomacy of two countries separated both by geography and culture. While connections date back to the early 1970s, for many years the relationship was largely formal, with limited exchange beyond the basics of international recognition.
New embassies and official visits
Formal diplomatic ties between Iceland and India were set up in the mid-1970s. Initially, neither country operated a resident embassy in the other’s capital. Iceland’s embassy in London managed affairs with India, and India’s embassy in Oslo looked after connections with Iceland. This arrangement reflected the modest level of contact between the two countries during those first decades.
The dynamic changed in 2005, when President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson became the first leader of Iceland to travel officially to India. This visit was significant, not least because Iceland gave public backing to India’s bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, the first Nordic country to do so. The same year, Indian President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam visited Iceland, further signalling growing interest on both sides.
Permanent embassies soon followed these high-level exchanges. Iceland opened its embassy in New Delhi in February 2006, and Reykjavik welcomed the first resident Indian ambassador in 2008, S. Swaminathan. Gunnar Pálsson serves as Iceland’s ambassador to India.
Trade and scientific cooperation
Economic links between Iceland and India remain limited but are slowly expanding. In 2007, Iceland exported goods worth US$1.14 million to India. A large proportion of this came from the fishing industry, especially cod, which made up more than three quarters of Icelandic exports to India. Industrial and medical products were also traded, though in smaller amounts.
Meanwhile, India exported nearly US$19 million in goods, including consumer products and raw materials, to Iceland in the same year. By 2007, total trade between the two reached US$26.7 million, with the balance in India’s favour. Though these figures are modest, agreements and treaties have set the stage for further economic growth.
Key agreements between the two countries include a Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement, which limits certain types of taxation to 10 percent. Cooperation also extends to science and technology. Together Iceland and India have worked on research relating to hydrogen and fuel cells through the International Partnership for Hydrogen Economy. MoUs have also been signed on sustainable fisheries and studies of anomalies ahead of earthquakes, reflecting shared interests in renewable resources and natural sciences.
