NORTHERN European leaders are meeting later today in the Icelandic capital Reykjavik.
Not only is there a focus on innovation and business cooperation through the Northern Future Forum, but collaboration across the region more generally through the Nordic Council.
Sadly the most northerly neighbour to these Arctic countries will not be there in her own right. Scotland is not yet a sovereign state so we have to rely on the UK government to represent us.
It is to be welcomed that UK Prime Minister David Cameron will be in Iceland. If his intention is to mend fences and take regional cooperation seriously then his attendance is a good thing.
No doubt he should start by apologising to the people of Iceland for his predecessor Gordon Brown applying UK anti-terrorist laws to a trusted ally during the banking crisis.
Then he might reverse the petulant and childish decision to boycott Nato northern air policing from Iceland and the lack of a single Royal Navy vessel to northern maritime patrol groups in recent years.
As a Northern European nation Scotland has the Atlantic to our west, North Sea to our east and Iceland Gap to our north. That is why it was a mistake for the UK to not even mention the northern dimension in its last Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR). We in Scotland understand how strategically important our region is even if the government in London has forgotten.
Across our region we share a wide range of opportunities and challenges: from environmental changes, economic growth and innovation, improving transportation, and issues of geographic peripherality.
If David Cameron wants to help with these things it will be welcome. If however he is going to join Nordic neighbours to grandstand about the forthcoming EU referendum in the UK it will be noticed and frowned on. Journalists in London have been briefed that the purpose of the Cameron visit is to highlight the "shortcomings" of Iceland and Norway as non-members of the European Union. I speak as a pro-European, but it is insulting to our neighbours to involve ourselves in their internal debates.
Angus Brendan MacNeil is SNP MP for the Western Isles
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