The Trump administration is working to back from the Taliban after the United States abandoned it in the chaotic withdrawal four years ago in a move the president said would help the country keep an eye on China.
During a press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, President Donald Trump said he wants to regain control of Bagram from the Taliban and that the Biden administration shouldn’t have given it up in the departure from Afghanistan. Prior to troops leaving in 2021, it had served as the center of its military operation for most of the war in Afghanistan.
“We gave it to (the Taliban) for nothing,” Trump said. “We’re trying to get it back, by the way.”
Much about the plan is unclear, as the president and administration have offered few details on whether negotiations have taken place, what exactly the administration is hoping to use it for and how it would go about reestablishing a military footprint in a hostile environment. The base was frequently targeted for attacks by militant groups.
“It’s one of the most powerful bases in the world in terms of runway strength and length,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “You can land anything on there. You can land a planet on top of it.”
In addition to its proximity to China, the base is also in a strategically beneficial location to deal with threats from Russia, Iran and terrorist groups in the Middle East. But it would also come with intense security risks and any troops and personnel stationed there could be targeted for attacks.
“If everything was equal, having a military presence right there is a strategic advantage for the United States, but everything isn’t equal,” said Mark Chandler, former director of Defense Intelligence Agency’s Middle East and Africa Center and professor of practice at Coastal Carolina University. ” That is not a friendly nation. The Taliban is a terrorist organization, so you’ve gotta look at all of those factors in the geopolitical and international sense.”
The Taliban quickly and publicly rejected Trump’s suggestion of allowing the U.S. to reestablish a military presence at the base but said they were open to improving relations between the two countries.
“Without the U.S. having any military presence in Afghanistan, both Afghanistan and the U.S. need to engage with each other, and they can have political and economic relations based on mutual respect and shared interests,” Afghan foreign ministry official Zakir Jalaly wrote in a post on X. “Military presence has never been accepted by Afghans in history, and this possibility was completely rejected during the Doha talks and agreement, but doors to other engagements have been opened.”
Despite the resistance, Trump suggested that the U.S. still holds leverage over the Taliban.
“We’re trying to get it back because they need things from us,” he said. “We want that base back.”
Outside of getting the Taliban’s approval, the idea is also likely to face intense pushback from other countries in the region as well as China.
“I don’t see how you get a security agreement to put forces back in Bagram that you can guarantee their safety,” Chandler said. “From the perspective of the Taliban, you would have ‘infidels’ coming in and occupying your country and they’re not going to allow infidels back in to work within their country.”
“No one in that region is going to like this,” he added.
The U.S. has not maintained much engagement with the Taliban since it quickly retook control of the country once American forces left outside of hostage negotiations and a meeting with a U.S. special envoy for a prisoner swap. Afghanistan has been mostly isolated on the world stage since the Taliban returned to power, with its government only being recognized by Russia.
Trump has raised the idea that the U.S. should have maintained a presence at Bagram because of China and its location, “exactly one hour away from where China makes its nuclear missiles,” he said in March. But the agreement the first Trump administration signed with the Taliban did not contain any provisions allowing the U.S. to maintain control of Bagram and included language that America would “withdraw from Afghanistan all military forces of the United States.”
Trump has also said that he would have kept control over the base if the withdrawal had happened under his watch because of its strategic importance to counter China. He has been a frequent critic of the Biden administration’s handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the deaths of 13 U.S. service members and 170 Afghans in a suicide bombing at Kabul’s airport.
The Pentagon is conducting another review into the withdrawal from Afghanistan, along with congressional investigations that have accused the Biden administration of conducting a series of avoidable blunders that led to the chaotic scenes in the final moments of America’s presence there and led to . Reviews conducted during the Biden administration largely blamed Trump and his agreement with the Taliban for the issues.