Putin claims US has been planning to annex Greenland since 1860s

(MENAFN) Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that the US has long harbored plans to annex Greenland, highlighting the island's strategic importance amid rising tensions. Speaking at the International Arctic Forum in Murmansk, Putin referred to US President Donald Trump's repeated calls for the US to claim ownership of Greenland. Trump recently stated that the US needs the island for national defense and claimed it would be beneficial not only to the US but also to Denmark.

Putin emphasized that the US’s intentions regarding Greenland are not new, noting that plans to annex the island have been in place since the 1860s. He pointed out that such ambitions date back over a century and a half, with the US’s failure to secure Greenland in the past being part of a long-standing desire to control the region. Putin reminded his audience of the failed attempts in 1910 for a land-swap agreement between the US, Germany, and Denmark that would have ceded Greenland to the US.

The island, once fully controlled by Denmark, has hosted a US military base since World War II and continues to hold strategic military value. Greenland, which has grown more autonomous in recent decades, has the right to seek independence through a referendum.

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