Starmer says Trump should apologize for ‘insulting’ claim NATO allies stayed off Afghanistan front lines
LONDON — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday said President Donald Trump should apologize for claiming European allies stayed “a little off the front lines” in the war in Afghanistan, a rare public rebuke that underscored fresh strain across the Atlantic.
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Calling the remarks “insulting and frankly appalling,” Starmer said that if he had “misspoken in that way or said those words, I would certainly apologise.” He also paid tribute to the 457 British personnel who died after the United Kingdom joined the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 following the September 11 attacks.
The White House quickly rejected Starmer’s criticism. “President Trump is absolutely right – the United States of America has done more for NATO than any other country in the alliance has done combined,” spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said in a statement sent to the AFP news agency.
Trump’s Fox News comments came amid a week of friction with European partners. The president had threatened tariffs on several European countries that opposed his push for the United States to take over Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, before later withdrawing the threat. Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he also questioned whether NATO would support the United States if called upon, saying, “We’ve never needed them, we have never really asked anything of them.”
European officials pushed back. Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel condemned Trump’s remarks as untrue and disrespectful, while Polish Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said Poland remained “a reliable and proven ally, and nothing will change that.” The reaction followed a meeting between Trump and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, after which they said they had formed the “framework” for an arrangement on Arctic security.
Britain was the second-largest contributor to the war in Afghanistan, with more than 150,000 UK armed forces personnel serving over two decades of conflict alongside U.S. troops and partners from dozens of countries. NATO’s collective security clause, Article 5, was triggered for the first time after the 2001 attacks.
The costs were borne widely. More than 150 Canadians were killed in Afghanistan, along with about 90 French service personnel and dozens from Germany, Italy and other nations. Denmark, which faced U.S. pressure over the Greenland dispute, lost 44 soldiers. The United States lost more than 2,400 service members.
Afghan civilians suffered heavily. At least 46,319 Afghan civilians died as a direct result of the 2001 invasion, according to a 2021 estimate by Brown University’s Costs of War project, a figure that does not include indirect deaths caused by disease or lack of access to food, water and infrastructure.
The rhetoric over Afghanistan added to a week in which European patience with Washington appeared to fray. Trump’s tariff threats and his posture on Greenland rattled capitals already wary of his persistent criticism of the alliance’s burden-sharing. Though the president later softened his tone after meeting with Rutte, his suggestion that allies hung back in Afghanistan — a conflict in which NATO partners fought and died for years in the south and east of the country — drew swift rebukes.
Prince Harry, who served two tours in Afghanistan with the British Army, weighed in on Friday, saying the sacrifices of British soldiers “deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect.” He added: “Thousands of lives were changed forever. Mothers and fathers buried sons and daughters. Children were left without a parent. Families are left carrying the cost.”
The exchange sharpened questions about the trajectory of transatlantic relations as European leaders balance efforts to shield NATO’s credibility with domestic demands to defend their own forces’ records. For London, it also underscored an insistence that Britain’s role — and loss — in Afghanistan not be erased amid political crossfire.
By Ali Musa
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
