After US President Donald Trump's statements that NATO troops allegedly did not fight on the Afghan front, Latvian officials reminded of Latvia's contributions to the missions and the fallen soldiers.
Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs wrote on X that Latvia participated in the NATO mission under Article 5 in Afghanistan even before officially joining the alliance. "Our soldiers Edgars Ozoliņš, Voldemārs Anševics, Andrey Merkušev, and Davis Baltabols paid the highest price for this. They will forever remain in our memory. And we will always stand by our allies, just as we believe they will stand by us," emphasized Rinkēvičs.
The president added that in operations in Iraq and Georgia, Latvia lost four more servicemen — Vitalijs Vasiļjevs, Jānis Voitkevičs, Gints Bleja, and Olafs Baumanis.
Defense Minister Andris Sprūds also wrote that after the September 11 attacks, Latvia stood shoulder to shoulder with the United States alongside other NATO allies.
"Seven Latvian soldiers sacrificed their lives fighting terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq. Latvia keeps a living memory of their selfless sacrifice," the minister stated.
As reported, Donald Trump claimed in an interview with Fox News that NATO troops did not fight on the Afghan front, which caused outrage in the UK and other alliance countries.
UK Minister for Care Stephen Kinnock called Trump's statements completely erroneous. Judging by the interview shown on Fox News on Thursday, Trump does not know that in the war in Afghanistan, which began after the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda's attacks on the US on September 11, 2001, 457 British servicemen lost their lives in South Asia. According to Trump, "they will say they sent a few soldiers to Afghanistan. And they did — but they stayed a little behind, a little off the front line," the US president claimed.
After the September 11 attacks, the UK and other allies joined the US operation in Afghanistan when Washington invoked NATO's collective defense clause. In addition to British servicemen, soldiers from many NATO countries, including Denmark, France, and Italy, fought and died in Afghanistan.
Kinnock stated that he expects UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to raise this issue in conversation with Trump. "[Starmer], I am sure, will raise this issue in conversation with [the US president]. He is extremely proud of our armed forces and will make that clear to the president," the minister said on LBC radio.
Trump's comments were "completely erroneous" and "deeply distressing," Kinnock noted in an interview with Sky News.
"What he said is not true because the only time Article 5 was invoked was after the events of September 11 — to help the United States," the minister stated.
"And many British soldiers and many soldiers from other European NATO allies gave their lives supporting American missions, missions led by the US in places like Afghanistan and Iraq," he added.
Lucy Aldridge, whose son William died in Afghanistan at the age of 18, told the Daily Mirror that Trump's words are "extremely distressing." Trump's statements are "much more than a mistake," said Emily Thornberry, chair of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee. "This is a serious insult. It is an insult to the 457 families who lost someone in Afghanistan. How dare he say we were not on the front line," said the Labour politician on BBC Question Time.
