Lesotho has condemned a remark by US President Donald Trump that it is an African country that ‘‘nobody has ever heard of’’. It says the comment was insulting.
Trump mentioned Lesotho in his address to US Congress on Tuesday evening while listing some of the foreign spending he had cut as "appalling waste".
He singled out a past aid project of eight million dollars ‘‘in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of.’’ This drew laughter from the lawmakers present.
Lesotho’s Foreign Affairs Minister Lejone Mpotjoane said he was shocked and insulted by Trump’s remark and invited the US president to come visit. Mpotjoane said the remark was "quite insulting".
"I'm really shocked that my country can be referred to like that by the head of state," he told Reuters.
Lesotho is Southern African country known for its beautiful mountain landscape with a population of about 2 million.
It has the highest average altitude of any country and is sometimes called The Kingdom in the Sky.
"Lesotho is such a significant and unique country in the whole world. I would be happy to invite the president, as well as the rest of the world to come to Lesotho," said Mpotjoane.
US President Trump's aid cuts threat to South Africa following Pretoria’s recent land reforms has stirred a storm. However, tensions between the two countries are not new, with both clashing over Israel’s war on Gaza, Russia-Ukraine war and BRICS.
Trump's administration has cut billions of dollars in foreign aid worldwide as it seeks to align spending with Trump's "America First" policy.
Mpotjoane said Lesotho was feeling the impact as the health sector had been reliant on that aid for some time, but that the government was looking at how to become more self-sufficient.
"We have to accept that. But to refer to my country like that, it is quite unfortunate," said Mpotjoane.
