LONDON — The U.K.’s Energy Secretary Ed Miliband hit back at Donald Trump’s Davos jibe that offshore wind is for “losers,” telling a European energy summit that wind turbines are “for winners.”

Speaking in Hamburg, Germany, at a meeting focused on boosting Europe’s offshore wind capacity, Miliband said it was “important to be diplomatic,” when asked for his response to Trump’s remarks.

But, he added: “For us in the U.K., offshore wind is absolutely critical for our energy security. This is a hard-headed, not a soft-hearted, view that we have. We think it’s the right thing for the climate crisis but we think it’s absolutely the right thing for energy security.

“I think offshore wind is for winners.”

At the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, Trump reiterated his deep-seated loathing for wind energy, saying: “There are windmills all over Europe. … They are losers.”

Trump also claimed, falsely, that China, despite making most of the world’s wind turbines, don’t use them and only “sell them to the stupid people that buy them.” China has by far the world’s largest wind power generation capacity.

Energy ministers from the U.K., Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Iceland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands signed a deal Monday at the third North Sea Summit to deliver 100 gigawatts of joint offshore wind projects.

Miliband said that there was still “common ground” to be found with the Trump administration on energy, including around the development of new nuclear technology.

But he added: “Different countries will pursue their own national interests. But we are very clear about where our national interest lies.”

Frederike Holewik contributed reporting from Hamburg.