Tuesday 27 / January / 2026
Brussels: Ministers in Germany and France shot back at US President Donald Trump for his comments claiming that the US had "never needed" its European NATO allies — despite it being the only NATO member in history to invoke the mutual defense clause Article 5 — and alleging that non-US troops in Afghanistan had "stayed a little back" from the frontlines.
Germany's Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said Trump should apologize, while also implying that he was not exactly holding his breath.
"It would be a sign of decency, of respect and of insight," he said on ARD television. "But we all know how the US president operates."
Pistorius also said the inaccuracy of Trump's claims was not up for debate.
"To talk this way about allies is simply indecent and disrespectful. Everyone stood there, stood at the US' side. To assert otherwise today is simply not true," he said.
Although Germany was only able to mobilise after the Taliban was formally unseated in 2001, owing to its defence-only constitution after World War II, it became one of the largest European contributors during the roughly two-decade mission. In total, 59 Bundeswehr soldiers were killed and roughly 500 were wounded.
Meanwhile, speaking at the European Parliament in Brussels, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said he had stressed to Trump the cost paid by NATO allies in Afghanistan.
"For every two American soldiers who paid the ultimate price, one soldier of an ally or a partner, a NATO ally or a partner country, did not return home," Rutte said on Monday. "I know that America greatly appreciates the efforts."
In Paris, a senior government official laid a wreath of flowers at a monument dedicated to those who died for France in overseas operations. French Defence Ministry delegate Alice Rufo said the ceremony had been organised at short notice over the weekend, in light of Trump's comments, to show that "we do not accept that their memory be insulted."
How did Trump upset US allies?
Trump made the comments about European NATO members in an interview with US broadcaster Fox News in the wake of the Greenland feud between the US and its European allies last week.
"We've never needed them. We have never really asked anything of them," Trump said. "And 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."
The comments were a parting salvo in a chaotic week in Switzerland, delivered after Trump and NATO's rather vague "deal" on the Danish-controlled Greenland after his days lobbying for the US to take over the world's largest island.
Dozens of NATO members sent troops to Afghanistan in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US.
Among them, Danish troops fought and died in Helmand province. Helmand was one of the most notoriously dangerous regions of Afghanistan, the control of which US forces left to it allies led by Britain. Denmark's 44 deaths in Afghanistan, calculated as a share of its population of around 6 million, is roughly the same as the US ratio.
Trump seems to walk back remarks on UK troops
The prime ministers of the UK and Australia had already called out Trump's comments, with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and King Charles eliciting what appeared to be a partial climbdown, if not an apology, on social media.
"The GREAT and very BRAVE soldiers of the United Kingdom will always be with the United States of America!" Trump wrote on Truth Social late on Saturday, with no direct reference to his earlier comments. "In Afghanistan, 457 died, many were badly injured, and they were among the greatest of all warriors. It's a bond too strong to ever be broken."
This followed a public criticism from UK Prime Minister Starmer, and reports apparently leaked to British newspapers saying that King Charles' displeasure had also been conveyed to the White House.
Beyond Europe but within the anglophone "Five Eyes" security alliance within NATO, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the comments "completely unacceptable" over the weekend.
He said that families of the Australian soldiers who fell in Afghanistan would likely be "hurting" as a result of them.
"The bravery that was shown by 40,000 Australians [who] served in Afghanistan, they were certainly on the frontlines in order to, along with our other allies, defend democracy and freedom and to defend our national interests," Albanese said. "They deserve our respect."
