&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Trump raises questions on NATO's commitment, says allies avoided Afghanistan frontline, sparks outrage")
United States President Donald Trump's dislike for NATO's working style again came to the fore when he said that troops from the allied nations “stayed a little back, a little off the frontlines” in US' campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan. In an interview to Fox News in Davos he said he was not "sure" the alliance would ever back US if they needed them.
"They'll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan … and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines," said Trump adding that US has been “very good to Europe and to many other countries. It has to be a two-way street.”
Immediately after the interview Trump took to Truth Social to again express his displeasure with NATO.
“Maybe we should have put NATO to the test: Invoked Article 5, and forced NATO to come here and protect our Southern Border from further Invasions of Illegal Immigrants, thus freeing up large numbers of Border Patrol Agents for other tasks.”
Allies slam Trump
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Trump’s comments has not gone down well with its NATO allies. The United Kingdom that lost maximum number of troops after the US in Afghanistan conflict has expressed displeasure over Trump's comments.
Dame Emily Thornberry MP, chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committe speaking to BBC on the issue called Trump's comments "an insult" to the families of those killed in Afghanistan conflict and "so much more than a mistake".
While Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: "How dare he question their sacrifice?".
UK suffered 457 military deaths in the conflict, which is second after the US that lost 1,160 soldiers - around a third of the total coalition deaths.
