On Thursday, President Donald Trump suggested that he was working to re -establish an American presence at the Baghram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, four years after the American chaotic withdrawal from the country was left in the hands of the Taliban.
Trump put the idea during a press conference with British Prime Minister Kiir Starmer as he concluded a government visit to the United Kingdom and linked it to the need to confront its supreme rival, China.
“We are trying to restore it,” Trump said of Al Qaeda aside a question about the end of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A gate is seen at the Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, on Friday, June 25, 2021.
While Trump described his call to the American army to re -establish a job in Afghanistan as “urgent news”, the Republican President has sparked the idea before. The White House immediately did not respond to the questions about whether that or the Pentagon had made any planning about returning to the sprawling air base, which was essential to the longest war in America.
Trump seized the withdrawal of the United States under Biden
During his first presidency, Trump set the conditions for the United States with the negotiation of a deal with the Taliban. The 20 -year conflict ended in a disturbing way during the era of President Joe Biden: The Afghan government backed by the United States collapsed, and the terrible shelling killed 13 American soldiers and 170 others, and thousands of desperate Afghans descended at Kabul Airport in search of a outlet before the last American aircraft left over Hindu Kush.
The disaster of Afghanistan was a great setback just eight months after the Democratic Presidency of Biden, which he fought for recovery.
Republican critics in Biden, including Trump, seized this as a sign of a failed presidency. These criticisms continued today, including recently last week, when Trump claimed that this step encouraged Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine in February 2022.
“He had never done what he did, but he did not respect the leadership of the United States,” Trump said, talking about Putin. “They just passed through the total disaster in Afghanistan without any reason. We were leaving Afghanistan, but we were leaving it strongly and dignity. We would have kept the Bagram air base – one of the largest air bases in the world.
When asked again about the proposal hours at Air Force One, Trump did not provide any details, but again Biden because of “great efficiency” and said that the base should not have “not returned.”
“It is one of the strongest rules in the world in terms of strength and length of the runway,” he said. “You can land on anything there. You can get a planet over it.”
There is no clarity if there are discussions with the Taliban about Baghram
It is not clear whether the United States has any direct or indirect talks with the Taliban government about returning to the country. But Trump hinted that the Taliban, who had struggled with an economic crisis, international legitimacy, internal passengers, and the militant groups since returning to power in 2021, could be a game to allow the American army to return.
“We are trying to restore it because they need things from us,” Trump said of the Taliban.
The President reiterated his view that the American presence in Baghram has value because of his proximity to China, and it is the most important economic and military competitor to the United States.
“But one of the reasons why we want this rule, as you know, an hour away from the place where China makes its nuclear weapons,” Trump said. “So a lot of things happen.”
Late Thursday, Zacker Galle, a Taliban Foreign Ministry official, refused the idea of the United States to return to Baghram.
Gall said on the social platform x.
While the United States and Taliban do not have official diplomatic relations, aspects have held hostages. An American man who was kidnapped was released more than two years ago while traveling via Afghanistan as a tourist by the Taliban in March.
Last week, the Taliban also said they had reached an agreement with American envoys to exchange prisoners as part of an attempt to normalize relations between the United States and Afghanistan.
The Taliban did not provide any details of the detainee’s exchange, and the White House did not comment on the meeting in Kabul or the results described in the Taliban statement. The Taliban released pictures of their talks, which show the Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Mouetheh, with Trump’s special envoy to respond to the hostages, Adam Bouhler.
Officials of the US Central Command in the Middle East and the Pentagon, including the office of Defense Minister Beit Higseth, referred questions about the re -establishment of the presence in Baghram to the White House.
Copyright © 2025 by Associated Press. All rights reserved.