ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer responded to United States President Donald Trump’s comments on NATO troops in Afghanistan, calling them “frankly appalling,” on Friday. 

When talking about the US involvement in NATO in an interview on Fox News on Thursday, Trump said the US received little in return for its NATO contributions. 

“Will they be there if we ever needed them?” Trump asked, “I’m not sure of that.”

He went on to say that the US has never needed NATO, adding that “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.”

Starmer responded in a video on Friday in which he paid respect to the 457 British service members who were killed in Afghanistan, which was the deadliest overseas conflict for the UK since the 1950s.

Britain's Prince Harry carries out a pre-flight check to his Apache helicopter in Camp Bastion, southern Afghanistan in this photograph taken December 12, 2012, and released January 21, 2013. The Prince, was serving as a pilot/gunner with 662 Squadron Army Air Corps,
Britain's Prince Harry carries out a pre-flight check to his Apache helicopter in Camp Bastion, southern Afghanistan in this photograph taken December 12, 2012, and released January 21, 2013. The Prince, was serving as a pilot/gunner with 662 Squadron Army Air Corps, (credit: REUTERS/JOHN STILLWELL/POOL)

“I will never forget their courage, their bravery, and the sacrifice that they made for their country. There were many also who were injured, some with life-changing injuries,” the Prime Minister said.

“So, I consider President Trump’s remarks insulting and frankly appalling,” Starmer added.

"I lost friends there," Prince Harry responds

Duke of Sussex Prince Harry, who himself was deployed twice to Afghanistan, also condemned Trump’s remark.

“I served there. I made lifelong friends there. And I lost friends there,” Prince Harry said in a statement on Friday.

He added that the US was the only country to ever have invoked the NATO collective security clause, following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, saying that when the US did ask for NATO’s help, “allies answered that call.”

“These sacrifices deserve to be spoken about truthfully and with respect, as we all remain united and loyal to the defense of diplomacy and peace,” Prince Harry stated.

In addition to the deaths of British soldiers, more than 150 Canadians were killed in Afghanistan, along with 90 French service personnel and more from Germany, Italy, and other NATO member nations.

Denmark - now under heavy pressure from Trump to transfer its semi-autonomous region of Greenland to the US - lost 44 troops, one of NATO's highest per-capita death rates.

The United States lost about 2,460 troops in Afghanistan, according to the US Department of Defense, a figure on par with the per capita losses of Britain and Denmark.

Reuters contributed to this report.