British PM Starmer objects to Trump’s NATO cowardice claims
Jan. 23 (UPI) — President Donald Trump insulted NATO member states by suggesting they can’t be counted on to contribute to military actions when needed, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Friday.
Starmer called the president’s comments “insulting and, frankly, appalling” and suggested Trump should apologize, while the prime minister addressed media on Friday.
“If I had misspoken in that way or said those words, I would certainly apologize,” Starmer said.
Starmer said Britain lost 457 military personnel in Afghanistan, while Canada lost 165 and Denmark 44, during the war that started Oct. 7, 2001, and ended Aug. 30, 2021.
The prime minister said Britain has a close relationship with the United States to ensure the island nation’s national security.
“It is because of that relationship that we fought alongside the Americans for our values in Afghanistan,” Starmer said.
“And it was in that context that people lost their lives or suffered terrible injuries [while] fighting for freedom, fighting with our allies for what we believe in,” he added.
Trump on Thursday accused NATO allies of shying away from fighting in Afghanistan by avoiding areas in which fighting was underway and said the United States could not count of NATO allies to help protect the United States and its territories if necessary.
He made the comments during an interview with Fox News, according to Politico.
“They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan,” Trump said, adding that European nations did send troops.
“They stayed a little back, a little off the front lines,” he said, while suggesting they shied away from fighting.
British Defense Minister John Healey also took exception to the president’s comments.
“The UK and NATO allies answered the U.S. call,” Healy said on social media, “and more than 450 British personnel lost their lives in Afghanistan.
“Those British troops should be remembered for who they were: heroes who gave their lives in service of our nation.”
Healy said NATO only issued an Article 5 call to action once, and the United Kingdom responded.
NATO’s Article 5 is a commonly included military treaty agreement in which an attack on one member nation is considered an attack on all.
Such treaty provisions led to military escalation that caused World War I after the assassination of Austro-Hungary’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914.
Trump also criticized British officials’ decision to cede control of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean to Mauritius.
