Lesotho\u2019s foreign minister said on Wednesday he was shocked and insulted by US President Donald Trump saying nobody has heard of the African country, and invited him to come visit. <\/p>\n
Trump mentioned Lesotho in his address to US Congress on Tuesday evening while listing some of the foreign spending he had cut as \u201cappalling waste.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cEight million dollars to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of,\u201d Trump said, drawing laughs in the Congress. <\/p>\n
Lesotho\u2019s foreign minister, Lejone Mpotjoane, said the remark was \u201cquite insulting.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really shocked that my country can be referred to like that by the head of state,\u201d he told Reuters. <\/p>\n
Lesotho, a mountainous nation of about 2 million people which is encircled by South Africa, has the highest average altitude of any country and is sometimes called The Kingdom in the Sky. <\/p>\n
\u201cLesotho 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,\u201d said Mpotjoane. <\/p>\n
He said some civil society organizations funded by the US Embassy in Lesotho did work to support the LGBT+ community, but the United States also provided important funding for the country\u2019s health and agriculture sectors. <\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s administration has cut billions of dollars in foreign aid worldwide as it seeks to align spending with Trump\u2019s \u201cAmerica First\u201d policy. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe decision by the president to cut the aid\u2026 it is (his) prerogative to do that,\u201d said Mpotjoane. \u201cWe have to accept that. But to refer to my country like that, it is quite unfortunate.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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