Trump's NATO front line comments 'deeply disappointing', UK minister says

LONDON, Jan 23 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's comments that NATO troops stayed off the front line in Afghanistan were "deeply disappointing", a British minister said on Friday, noting that many European soldiers had died supporting American-led operations.

Criticising NATO in a Fox News interview on Thursday, Trump said the United States had "never needed" the alliance and that its allies stayed "a little off the front lines" in Afghanistan.

"Many, many British soldiers and many soldiers from other European NATO allies gave their lives in support of American-led missions in places like Afghanistan and Iraq," junior minister Stephen Kinnock told Sky News.

"I think anybody who seeks to criticise what [our armed forces] have done and the sacrifices that they make is plainly wrong," he added.

Britain lost 457 military personnel during its 20-year deployment in Afghanistan.

More than 150 Canadians were killed along with 90 French service personnel, while Denmark - which has been under heavy pressure from Trump to sell its semi-autonomous region of Greenland to the U.S. - lost 44 troops, one of NATO's highest per-capita death rates.

Kinnock also recalled that the U.S. was the only NATO member ever to invoke the alliance's collective-defence clause, Article 5, which treats an attack on one as an attack on all, prompting allies to rally in support of Washington after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

He added that the NATO alliance was the most successful international security pact in "the history of the world", and that the U.S. and its European partners, including Britain, played a vital role.

Other British politicians noted that Trump had avoided the draft for the Vietnam War, citing bone spurs in his feet.

"Trump avoided military service 5 times," Ed Davey, leader of Britain's centrist Liberal Democrats, wrote on X. "How dare he question their sacrifice."

(Reporting by Sam TabahritiEditing by Gareth Jones)