Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a statement in the media briefing room of 9 Downing Street, in central London, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (Jordan Pettitt/Pool Photo via AP)
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has criticised US President Donald Trump for his comments that troops from NATO countries — other than Americans — stayed away from the front line during the war in Afghanistan.
‘Insulting and frankly appalling’
“Let me start by paying tribute to 457 of our armed services who lost their lives in Afghanistan. I will never forget their courage, their bravery and the sacrifice that they made for their country. There are many also who were injured, some with life-changing injuries,” Starmer said in a video broadcast by Sky News.
“I consider President Trump’s remarks to be insulting and frankly appalling and I am not surprised they have caused such hurt to the loved ones of those who were killed or injured and, in fact, across the country,” he added.
Sir Keir Starmer has said Donald Trump's claim that British troops did not serve on the frontline in Afghanistan was "insulting and frankly appalling".
He suggested that the US president should apologise.
Starmer further said that if he had said something like that, he would “certainly apologise”.
Earlier, Starmer’s office had also issued a statement denouncing Trump’s false assertion that non-American NATO troops did not fight on the front line during the war in Afghanistan.
What Trump said
“We’ve never needed them, we have never really asked anything of them,” Trump had said in an interview with Fox News in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday.
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“You know, they’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan, or this or that, and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.”
NATO invasion of Afghanistan
US-led NATO troops invaded Afghanistan in October 2001, following the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States. It was the first and until now the only time Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty was invoked.
NATO troops continued to be in Afghanistan until August 2021, when they were formally withdrawn.
At the height of the conflict between 2010 and 2012, more than 130,000 international troops from 51 NATO and partner nations were on the ground in Afghanistan.
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According to NATO data, a total of 3,486 troops died during the conflict, including 2,461 US service members and 457 British personnel.
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Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a statement in the media briefing room of 9 Downing Street, in central London, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (Jordan Pettitt/Pool Photo via AP) 
