LONDON (dpa-AFX) – Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has criticized US President Donald Trump for his controversial statements about NATO troops in Afghanistan. It was “unacceptable” for the US President to question the efforts of allied soldiers, Frederiksen said, according to the Ritzau news agency.
Frederiksen emphasized that Denmark had suffered the greatest losses in terms of population. According to Ritzau, 44 Danish soldiers died during the operation after September 11, 2001, 37 of them as a result of direct combat operations.
In an interview with Fox News, Trump once again claimed that the USA never needed NATO. Several other NATO states had sent troops to Afghanistan, but they remained “a little” behind, “a little away from the front lines.” Criticism of the statements had previously come from Great Britain and Poland, among others.
After the Islamist terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the USA activated Article Five of the NATO treaty in order to get support from its allies. This led to Germany and other NATO states such as Great Britain taking part in the war against the Taliban and the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda. It was the first and only time in NATO history that such an alliance case was declared./mj/DP/zb
