Iceland’s Prime Minister Kristrún Mjöll Frostadóttir. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters
India and Nordic countries have a new engagement, driven in part by a desire for middle powers to find common ground in the face of concerns about global powers. However they have clear differences on ties with Russia, said Iceland’s Prime Minister Kristrún Mjöll Frostadóttir. Speaking to The Hindu on the sidelines of the India-Nordic Summit in Oslo on Tuesday (May 19, 2026) , Ms. Frostadóttir who at 38, is one of the world’s youngest leaders, and an economist by training, said she hopes to discuss new areas to improve bilateral trade, which is at present at extremely low levels, through a focus on renewable energy technologies, and pitched for more Indian films to be shot with Icelandic backdrops.
At the India-Nordic Summit, both you and Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of the importance of the word Sambandh- which means ‘relations’ in Hindi. What does it mean for you?Sambandh is an Icelandic word in its purest form, so it was very endearing to hear PM Modi use this word too. I mean, we’ve built our prosperity based on international relations, although a lot of things we’ve done well on our own. We are a small country, we are geographically isolated in a lot of ways, and so I don’t want to belittle what Icelanders have done on their own. We’re a very proud nation, but one of our, you know, many of our biggest feats when it comes to prosperity and driving progress, have been increased international relationships throughout the history. Maybe, it has been with Europe and the U.S. thus far, but we’re also looking towards Asia, and India is obviously going to be a big part of that.
