{
  "id": 15610044,
  "title": "UK and Poland accuse Hegseth of downplaying allies’ role in Afghanistan",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/19/uk-and-poland-accuse-hegseth-of-downplaying-allies-role-in-afghanistan",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-10-19T13:22:55.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Politico EU",
    "slug": "politico-eu",
    "url": "https://www.politico.eu/article/uk-poland-pete-hegseth-downplay-role-afghanistan/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The UK and Poland have criticized U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for his remarks about the involvement of NATO allies in the Afghanistan war. Downing Street, alongside Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, challenged Hegseth during his appearance at the University of Tennessee. He claimed that only a few NATO members were actively engaged in the conflict, stating, \"There were maybe five that contributed. It was actually closer to one or two that by the end were actually involved in kinetic operations.\" However, this contradicts the fact that all then-28 NATO members participated in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, following the invocation of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty on September 12, 2001. The U.K. Prime Minister's spokesman emphasized the significant sacrifices made by British and allied forces, highlighting that \"thousands of British and allied families made huge sacrifices to play their significant part in that war and uphold our values,\" and that \"more than 450 British personnel never returned.\" Sikorski accused Hegseth of downplaying the role of Polish soldiers who lost their lives securing Ghazni province. This isn't the first time fellow NATO members' contributions to the war have been questioned by the U.S. government; in January, President Donald Trump faced backlash for suggesting non-American forces remained \"a little back, a little off the front lines.\"",
  "summary": "British leader Andy Burnham's spokesperson says it's \"wrong\" for the U.S. defense secretary to diminish the importance of NATO countries.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}