We have a street name after Iceland in our capital. The reason: Iceland was the first western country to recognize the restoration of the independance of Lithuania. It took some balls 22 years ago, maybe they still have them :)
To be fair, though, the US never recognized the Baltic States incorporation into the USSR, neither de jure, nor de facto, therefore they had no restoration of independence to recognize.
Not really. As the USSR was collapsing and the Baltic countries broke free, Western countries rushed to re-recognise them (as most have de jure not recognised the occupation of the Baltic states). It did not take 24 hours after Iceland recognised the Baltic states, that Denmark did as well.
Furthermore, Denmark, along with Sweden and Norway spend the years following the dissolution of the USSR financially helping the Baltic states, something Iceland did not do (although, in their defence, they probably could not afford it either at that time).
Actually it took Denmark a bit more than two weeks to do the same, but you are right, they there second after Iceland. That was February 1991. Most of the other countries only "rushed" at the end of the summer after events in Moscow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Soviet_coup_d'état_attemp...
The part about help is true (though I heard a very pragmatic reason for it: "the better you live in your country, the less you will be likely to come to our". Not sure if working.)
