Prime Minister Geir Haarde requested that Iceland 's NATO allies assume responsibility for protecting Iceland 's airspace during the Riga Summit in November 2006 . The North Atlantic Council agreed to this request at its July 2007 meeting . The other NATO member states who lack the ability to patrol their own airspace have similar arrangements in place . In March 2008 , Prime Minister Haarde denied that the air policing operation was targeting Russian aircraft , and stated that " It is going to be a general patrolling exercise . We consider Russia to be our friends , by the way . " As of January 2013 , NATO had re-designated the deployments to Iceland as being the " Airborne Surveillance and Interception Capabilities to meet Iceland 's Peacetime Preparedness Needs " mission , and emphasised to reporters that it was focused on training rather than air policing
Riga Summit
2006 Riga summit
Icelandic Air Policing