Speaking in the French Parliament, France’s Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu welcomed that Vance had “corrected his remarks”.
He paid tribute to the memory of French soldiers who had died in recent decades, earning applause from French MPs by saying they “deserved the respect of our allies”.
Earlier, Vance’s original comments had drawn criticism from UK opposition politicians.
Conservative shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge pointed out both the UK and France deployed forces alongside the US in Afghanistan, adding: “It’s deeply disrespectful to ignore such service and sacrifice.”
Asked about Vance’s comments later, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the vice-president did not call Britain a “random country”.
“A lot of people are getting carried away. They’re saying loads of things and getting quite animated. Let’s keep cool heads,” she said.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said Vance was “wrong, wrong, wrong”, adding that the UK “stood by America” for 20 years in Afghanistan.
Liberal Democrat defence spokesperson Helen Maguire, a former captain in the Royal Military Police who served in Iraq, urged the UK’s ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, to call on Vance to apologise for the comments.
“JD Vance is erasing from history the hundreds of British troops who gave their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan,” she said.
She later told the BBC Vance’s comments “were clearly referring to the UK and France”, adding that they were “deeply disrespectful”.