The U.S. secretary of state said during a trip to Iceland that the country is at the center of shared regional security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic.

According to Reuters, on Tuesday, in Reykjavik, Marco Rubio met with Iceland’s foreign minister and stressed the importance of continuing security cooperation between the two countries in the face of increasing regional threats.

Iceland lies in a corridor that connects Greenland, Iceland and Britain, and submarines of Russia’s Northern Fleet regularly pass by on both sides.

The trip is the start of Rubio’s four-day tour of three NATO member countries, which also includes Greece and Portugal.

Rubio’s trip comes two weeks after the signing of the United States’ security pact with Denmark and Greenland.

Under this agreement, Washington intends to build two new military bases in Greenland.

The United States does not have a permanent base in Iceland, but it is trying to solidify its control over access routes to the Arctic that Russia and China are also seeking.