America’s NATO allies slammed U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion that allied forces stayed “a little off the front lines” in the war in Afghanistan.

“We’ve never needed them … they’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News in Davos on Thursday, referring to NATO allies. “And they did — they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines.”

The remarks prompted European leaders and veterans to point to frontline deployments and heavy casualties alongside U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

“Wrong and without respect” is how Norway’s Defense Minister Tore O. Sandvik described Trump’s comments.

“All fallen soldiers, their families and veterans deserve to be spoken about with respect,” Sandvik told local media, adding that he fully understood why veterans and relatives were angered by Trump’s words. More than 10,000 Norwegian troops served in Afghanistan and 10 were killed, he noted.

Denmark’s ambassador to the United States, Jesper Møller Sørensen, said Danish forces fought “on the front line” in Helmand province in the Afghan war and suffered one of the highest per-capita casualty rates among NATO allies.

“That was solidarity,” Sørensen wrote in a post on X. “We stood with America then — and we still do.”

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk recalled attending a farewell ceremony in Ghazni in 2011 for five fallen Polish soldiers. “The American officers who accompanied me then told me that America would never forget the Polish heroes,” he wrote on X, adding: “Perhaps they will remind President Trump of that fact.”

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer called Trump’s remarks “insulting and frankly appalling.”

“I will never forget [U.K. soldiers’] courage, their bravery and the sacrifice that they made for their country,” Starmer said on X.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: “Donald Trump is wrong. For 20 years our armed forces fought bravely alongside America’s in Afghanistan.”

Prince Harry, who served two tours in Afghanistan as a British Army captain in 2008 and 2012, said NATO allies “answered that call” when Washington invoked Article 5 of the NATO treaty after the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

“I served there. I made lifelong friends there. And I lost friends there,” Prince Harry said in a statement. He noted that the U.K. alone lost 457 service personnel, adding that “thousands of lives were changed forever.”

“Mothers and fathers buried sons and daughters. Children were left without a parent. Families are left carrying the cost,” he said, urging that those sacrifices be spoken about “truthfully and with respect.”

U.K. Defense Minister John Healey said British troops who died in Afghanistan were “heroes who gave their lives in service of our nation.”

French Armed Forces Minister Catherine Vautrin said France had been engaged in Afghanistan from 2001 alongside its NATO allies, recalling the 90 French soldiers killed in operations and many others wounded. “We remember their sacrifice, which commands respect,” she wrote.