Iceland's leader won't be around to welcome Pence

[TomSea]

Iceland's leader won't be around to welcome Pence
By EGILL BJARNASON, Associated Press



REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — Iceland's leader has announced that she will skip U.S. Vice President Mike Pence's visit to her Nordic nation, opting instead to keep "prior commitments" by attending a trade union conference and meetings in Sweden.

Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir said that she's planned for months to give the keynote speech for the Council of Nordic Trade Unions' annual meeting in Malmo, Sweden, on Sept. 3 — the day before Pence's arrival. She will only return the afternoon of Sept. 4 after private meetings with Nordic union leaders, her office said.

"This visit, that was organized by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, has been bouncing a lot around the calendar so that it has been very difficult to organize oneself around it," she told Icelandic broadcaster RUV on Tuesday. Her office Wednesday confirmed that she had not changed her mind.

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