Trump Wants Bagram Airbase Back from Taliban

Donald Trump has said he is negotiating with the Taliban to retake control of Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, a development that would take huge American military resources to sustain and represent a stunning turnaround from the Islamist group.

The US president was speaking at a press conference alongside Sir Keir Starmer at the end of his state visit to the UK when, during a question about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he gave the “little breaking news” update as an aside.

“We gave it [Bagram airbase] to them for nothing. We are trying to get it back, by the way, OK. That could be a little breaking news. We’re trying to get it back, because they [the Taliban] need things from us,” Trump said during the press conference at Chequers, the UK prime minister’s country estate.

Bagram airfield served as the main base for American forces during the two-decade-long Afghanistan war against Islamist groups, including the Taliban. Located about 44km north of Kabul and the size of a small city, the base was captured by the Taliban shortly after it was vacated by the US during the withdrawal of Nato forces in August 2021.

“We want that base back,” he said, calling it one of the biggest airbases in the world. “One of the reasons we want the [Bagram] base back is because it is an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons. So a lot of things are happening,” he said.

Asked hours later on Air Force One about the proposal to take back one of the world’s largest military bases, Trump shared no details but blamed Biden and said the base should have “never been given back”.

“It’s one of the most powerful bases in the world in terms of runway strength and length,” he said. “You can land anything on there. You can land a planet on top of it,” the US president said.

Bagram has two runways and over 100 parking spots for fighter jets – known as revetments for the blast walls which protect each aircraft. One of the runways, built in 2006, measures more than 12,000ft long. It also boasts a passenger lounge, a 50-bed hospital and hangar-sized tents filled with supplies like furniture.

This is not the first time Trump has spoken of his dream of reclaiming Bagram, alongside some of the weapons and vehicles that were abandoned when the last US forces slipped away in the dead of night. In March this year, he suggested the US should strike a deal with the Taliban to reclaim disused and deactivated military equipment that was not brought home at the time.

The Taliban’s spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has dismissed Trump’s remarks as “emotional” and said US officials should “refrain” from making “statements based on unsubstantiated information”.

In April, Mujahid reiterated that an American takeover of the base was “impossible” and that “there is no need for any country’s military presence in Afghanistan at present and the Islamic Emirate will not allow such an action”.

And on Thursday, the Taliban again dismissed the idea of striking an agreement to hand over the base, while opening the door to greater diplomatic engagement with Washington. The US, in line with the policy of the wider UN General Assembly, does not recognise the legitimacy of the Taliban’s regime in Kabul.

“Afghanistan and the United States need to engage with one another ... without the United States maintaining any military presence in any part of Afghanistan,” Zakir Jalal, an Afghan foreign ministry official, posted on X (Twitter).

Despite not recognising the Taliban regime, the US is engaged in talks with Kabul at a relatively high level. On Saturday, US special hostage envoy Adam Boehler and Zalmay Khalilzad, a former US special envoy for Afghanistan, met the Taliban’s foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi. Those talks may have been in part what sparked Trump’s comments on Thursday, though they were ostensibly about freeing Americans detained overseas.

When asked about Trump’s comments, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson suggested he was “stoking tensions and creating confrontation”. “The future and destiny of Afghanistan should be held in the hands of the Afghan people,” Lin Jian told reporters.

Even if the US did have the Taliban’s backing to retake Bagram, holding the base would require a mammoth military operation – to the point where it would have all the optics of a reinvasion of the country, current and former US military officials told Reuters.

The Taliban are not the only militant group operating inside Afghanistan, with Isis and al-Qaeda having strong presences. One official estimated securing the base would take 10,000 US soldiers, who would need to secure its massive perimeter so that Americans inside wouldn’t face a constant threat of rocket attack.

“I don’t see how this can realistically happen,” the official said.

A US presence in Afghanistan would also be vulnerable to an advanced missile threat from Iran, which attacked an American air base in Qatar in June after the US struck Iranian nuclear sites.

And a former senior US defence official played down the benefits of retaking the base, including the proximity to China mentioned by Trump.

“I don’t think there’s a particular military advantage to being up there,” the former official said. “The risks sort of outweigh the advantages.”

There is no active planning to militarily take over Bagram air base, a US official told Reuters, on the condition of anonymity.