Trump’s claims about Nato troops in Afghanistan are disappointing, minister says

Donald Trump’s claim that NATO forces stayed “slightly away from the front lines” during the war in Afghanistan is “disappointing”, a minister has said.

Health and Social Care Secretary Stephen Kinnock said the UK and other allies had “always stood shoulder to shoulder with the US” and contributed to US-led missions.

On Thursday, Labor MP Emily Thornberry described what happened as an “absolute insult” to the 457 British service members killed in the conflict, while Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “How dare he question their sacrifices?”

The UK has been among several allies to join the US in Afghanistan since 2001, after it activated NATO’s collective security clause in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The United States is the only country that has invoked Article 5 of NATO, which states that “any armed attack against one member of NATO shall be considered an attack against all of them.”

But Trump He told Fox News on Thursday that he was “not sure” the military coalition would be there to help the United States “if we needed it.”

“We never needed them,” he said, adding: “We never asked them for anything.”

“They will say they sent some troops to Afghanistan, and they did, and they stayed a little bit back, a little bit away from the front lines,” he said.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast on Friday, Kinnock said Trump’s claims “don’t really make sense” and that his comments “bear no resemblance to reality”.

He paid tribute to British troops killed in Afghanistan and described the British armed forces as “the definition of patriotism, courage, dedication and courage”. [and] Professionalism.”

“They put their lives on the line to defend our country. I am disappointed in President Trump’s comments,” he said.

Kinnock also paid tribute to the “powerful words” spoken by Lucy Aldridge, whose son William died in a bomb explosion aged 18 in Afghanistan. She said Trump’s comments were “very disturbing.”

“We live through the trauma every day for the rest of our lives because of the contribution our loved ones have made. They were definitely on the front line,” she told the Mirror.

Kinnock said Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer would speak to Trump directly about his comments.

He told LBC: “He is very proud of our armed forces, and he will make that clear to the president.”

Kinnock told Sky News that Trump’s comments were “very disappointing,” adding: “Anyone who seeks to criticize what they’ve done and the sacrifices they’re making is clearly wrong.”

Conservative MP Ben Obis-Gekti, who served in Afghanistan, also rejected the US President’s statements, saying that “it is sad to see the sacrifices of our nation and the sacrifices of our NATO partners so cheap.”

Former shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick, who recently defected from the UK’s Reform Party, said the comments were “offensive and wrong”.

Thornberry, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, told the BBC’s Queen’s Time program on Thursday that the comments were “more than just a mistake.”

“It’s an absolute insult… How dare he say we weren’t on the front line, how dare he?

“We were always there whenever the Americans wanted us to be,” she said, describing Trump as “a man who had never seen action before” but who was now “commander in chief and knew nothing about how to defend America.”

She said the US was a “friend” of the UK, but its leader “behaved in a bullying and rude manner, was deliberately trying to undermine us, and which was trying to undermine NATO”.

On the same programme, shadow Conservative MP Stuart Andrew also described the comments as “disgraceful” and “appalling”.

“There are a lot of people in this country who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, many of whom lost their lives, but also many people who came back with life-changing injuries and we should thank them.”

He added that the special relationship between the UK and the US was important for both defense and security, and that Trump had directed the conversation in recent weeks to Arctic security – where he said there was a “very serious threat”.

Speaking to the BBC’s Newsnight programme, Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel rejected Trump’s statements as “false”, saying that “Europeans are shedding blood” in support of US forces in Afghanistan.

He said that NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte rejected similar comments made by Trump earlier, during a joint press conference held by the two men in Davos on Thursday.

In response to a question about the US President repeating this claim, Van Weel said: “We must speak for the truth as Mark Rutte did. And if he repeats it, we must repeat it again because this is not the way history has gone.”

Meanwhile, former British Army officer Obese-Jecty He said he saw “with his own eyes the sacrifices made by British soldiers.”

“I do not believe that US military personnel share President Trump’s views; his words do a disservice to them as our closest military allies,” he wrote on X.

Calvin Bailey, a Labor MP and former RAF officer who served alongside US special operations units in Afghanistan, said the president’s claims “bear no resemblance to the reality experienced by those of us who served there.”

He told the PA news agency: “As I reminded the US forces in which I served on 4 July 2008, we were there because of the shared belief, expressed at America’s founding, that free people have inalienable rights and must not live under tyranny.”

He added: “This belief was the basis of the response to the events of September 11, and it is something worth thinking about now.”

BBC The Ministry of Defense has been contacted for comment.

A spokesman pointed to comments made by Defense Secretary John Haley during his visit to NATO ally Denmark on Wednesday, before Trump’s comments.

“In Afghanistan, our forces trained together, fought together, and on some occasions, died together, making the ultimate sacrifice,” he said.

The United States invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 to oust the Taliban, which it said was harboring Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures linked to the September 11 attacks. NATO countries contributed troops and military equipment to the US-led war.

More than 3,500 coalition soldiers had died as of 2021, when the United States withdrew from the country — about two-thirds of them Americans.

The UK suffered the second highest number of military deaths in the conflict after the United States, which saw 2,461 deaths.