US Vice President JD Vance insisted he was not targeting Britain and France when he said it was in America's economic interest to provide better security than 20,000 troops from a country that has not fought in decades.
US Vice President JD Vance was heavily criticized by British and French politicians on March 4 after speaking about European plans to deploy peacekeeping forces in Ukraine.
US Vice President JD Vance meets with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Munich, Germany, in February.
Specifically, in an interview on Fox News, Mr. Vance stated that America's economic interests in Ukraine are better for security than "20,000 soldiers from some random country who haven't fought a war in 30 years."
Previously, Britain and France were widely known as the two countries planning to send peacekeeping forces to Ukraine.
British Conservative politicians were extremely angry about Mr. Vance's statement, according to Politico . Some people highlighted that Britain fought alongside the US in Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US, then joined the US-led war in Iraq in 2003.
The party's MP James Cartlidge criticised Mr Vance for being "utterly disrespectful" in ignoring that "service and sacrifice". Liberal Democrat spokeswoman Helen Maguire, a former military police captain who served in Iraq, said the US vice-president was "erasing history" and "trying to deny reality".
Politician Nigel Farage, a key ally of US President Donald Trump in the UK, said Mr Vance was "wrong" to make that statement. He recalled that in 20 years in Afghanistan, the UK had deployed the same number of troops and money as the US and had sacrificed the same amount. "We stood by the US for the entire 20 years, making exactly the same contribution. They may have been six times bigger, but we did our part. So JD was wrong in that regard," Mr Farage said.
In France, Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu also rejected Mr. Vance's comparison. "I would like to say that the greatest strength of an army is the courage of its soldiers. I would like to honor the more than 600 French soldiers who have sacrificed their lives for their country since the Algerian war and who deserve our respect and that of our allies. We respect the veterans of all our allies and we expect our veterans to be respected," Mr. Lecornu said, adding that fortunately the US vice president corrected his comments.
Mr Vance had earlier said it was "absurdly disingenuous" to interpret his comments as a rejection of the role of Britain and France.
"I didn't even mention the UK or France in the clip, they have fought valiantly alongside the US for over 20 years and counting. But let's be honest: there are many countries that are volunteering (privately or publicly) to support but don't have the battlefield experience or military equipment to do anything meaningful," Mr. Vance wrote on the social network X.
Vance's spokesman Taylor Van Kirk later said that no country in Europe had the military resources to effectively deter Russia without support from the United States, according to Reuters.
“Many of these countries have served valiantly in support of US and NATO missions in the past, but it is disingenuous to pretend that those contributions can match the mobilization that a hypothetical European army would require,” Kirk said.
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/pho-tong-thong-my-phu-nhan-ha-thap-quan-doi-anh-phap-185250305070057085.htm
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