United States president Donald Trump on Thursday said he was working to “get back” Bagram airbase, which the United States gave up control of after the 2021 Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.“We’re trying to get it back, by the way, that could be a little breaking news. We’re trying to get it back because they need things from us. We want that base back,” Trump said at a press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Trump claimed his intention to return American forces to Afghanistan’s Bagram Airbase is because “China now controls Bagram.”About a month earlier, Trump had suggested the US might return to Afghanistan, saying, “We are going to keep a small force on Bagram” to counter China’s growing influence.Trump stressed that his focus on Bagram was not about Afghanistan itself. “We wanted to keep this base because of China, not because of Afghanistan,” he said, noting the airbase’s proximity to China’s nuclear facilities, “just an hour” away, as its key strategic value.
Why is Trump eyeing Bagram airbase?
Bagram Airbase has long been one of the United States’ most important military assets in South Asia, valued for both its location and its capabilities. Located about 40 kilometres north of Kabul, it sits close to the borders of China, Pakistan, Iran, and Central Asia, giving the US a forward-operating hub near some of the world’s most volatile regions. Its proximity to China’s Xinjiang region, where Beijing maintains nuclear and military facilities, made it particularly significant for American strategic planning. During the US presence in Afghanistan, Bagram was the largest American airbase in the country. It had multiple runways capable of handling heavy bombers and transport aircraft, housed thousands of US and Nato troops at its peak, and included extensive infrastructure such as command centers, detention facilities, and logistics hubs. This made it the nerve center of US military operations in Afghanistan for nearly two decades. Beyond Afghanistan, Bagram gave Washington the ability to project power across South and Central Asia, carry out surveillance, support counterterrorism missions, and monitor regional adversaries like China, Russia, Iran, and Pakistan. Symbolically too, the base represented the scale of America’s military footprint in the region. Its abrupt abandonment during the 2021 withdrawal was seen by many analysts as a strategic mistake, as it left the facility open to Taliban control and raised concerns about possible Chinese interest in the site.
