British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has suggested that President Donald Trump should apologize for claiming that European forces were not on the front lines of the war in Afghanistan.
Starmer told Fox News on Friday that Trump’s previous comments that NATO allies had remained “some distance from the front line” in Afghanistan were “derogatory and frankly appalling”, in a rare direct rebuke of a US president.
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Asked if he would demand an apology from President Trump, Starmer said: “If I had made that gaffe, if I had said those words, I certainly would have apologized.”
Mr Starmer also paid tribute to the 457 British soldiers who died in the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks.
Late Friday, the White House rejected the British leader’s criticism of President Trump.
“President Trump is absolutely right. The United States has done more for NATO than any other nation in the alliance combined,” White House Press Secretary Taylor Rogers said in a statement to AFP news agency.
Trump’s comments came after the United States withdrew its threat to impose tariffs on several European countries that opposed his demands to take over Denmark’s semi-autonomous territory of Greenland.
President Trump said Thursday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that he doesn’t know whether NATO would support the United States upon request. “We’ve never needed NATO, and we’ve never really asked anything from NATO.”
“Mothers and fathers buried their sons and daughters.”
More than 150,000 British military personnel are stationed in Afghanistan, making the country the second-largest contributor to the US-led coalition seeking to destroy strongholds of al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents.
In addition to U.S. and British forces, troops from dozens of other countries also participated, including NATO, whose collective security clause was invoked for the first time after the attacks on New York and Washington.
More than 150 Canadians were killed in Afghanistan, as well as 90 French soldiers and dozens of others from Germany, Italy and other countries.
Denmark continues to be under pressure from President Trump over the Greenland issue and has lost 44 soldiers.
The United States reportedly lost more than 2,400 soldiers.
At least 46,319 Afghan civilians died as a direct result of the 2001 invasion, according to 2021 estimates by Brown University’s Cost of War Project.
This figure does not include indirect deaths due to disease or lack of access to food, water and infrastructure.
President Trump’s comments sparked collective anger across Europe, and patience with the US president appeared to be wearing thin at the end of a week when his threat to annex Greenland was at its height.
Transatlantic relations took a hit as the US president threatened to impose tariffs on European countries over his territorial annexation ambitions, raising questions about the future of NATO.
And while Trump appeared to backtrack after a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte that formed the “framework” for an agreement on Arctic security, his comments about NATO troops in Afghanistan drew widespread criticism.
On Friday, Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel slammed President Trump’s comments as false and disrespectful.
Poland’s Defense Minister Wladysław Kosiniak-Kamisz said his country was a “reliable and proven ally and nothing can change that.”
Britain’s Prince Harry agreed, saying the “sacrifices” of British soldiers during the war “must be told with honesty and respect”.
“Thousands of lives have been changed forever,” said Harry, who served two tours in Afghanistan with the British Army.
“Mothers and fathers buried their sons and daughters,” he said. “Children were left without parents, and families were left to bear the cost.”
