Former U.S. President Donald Trump revealed that the United States is working to regain control of Afghanistan’s Bagram airbase, more than three years after its abrupt abandonment during the chaotic 2021 military withdrawal.
Speaking on the final day of his trip to England during a joint news conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday, Trump said Washington is in discussions about reclaiming the strategic base as part of a broader effort to reestablish a foothold in the region, particularly in response to China’s growing military threat.
“We’re trying to get it back, by the way,” Donald Trump said of Bagram. “We’re trying to get it back, because they need things from us. We want that base back. But one of the reasons we want the base, is, as you know, it’s an hour away from where China makes its nuclear weapons.”
A Base Abandoned Amid Chaos
The sprawling Bagram Airfield, once the largest U.S. military installation in Afghanistan, was vacated in July 2021 without public notice, just weeks before the Taliban reclaimed control of the country. The closure and subsequent full troop withdrawal marked the official end of America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan.
While it was Donald Trump’s administration that signed the 2020 Doha Agreement with the Taliban, setting a withdrawal timeline, it was his successor, then-President Joe Biden, who presided over the final exit. The operation was widely criticized as chaotic and deadly, culminating in the Taliban’s swift return to power.
Donald Trump, who has repeatedly condemned Biden’s handling of the exit, reiterated that his own plan had been fundamentally different.
“We were going to leave Afghanistan, but we were going to leave it with strength and dignity,” he said on September 18. “We were going to keep Bagram, the big air base one of the biggest airbases in the world. We gave it to them for nothing.”
Bagram’s potential return to U.S. control has taken on heightened significance against the backdrop of China’s accelerating nuclear weapons program. The Pentagon reported to Congress in 2024 that China possessed approximately 400 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. It projected that by 2030, Beijing could field as many as 1,000 operational nuclear warheads.
Donald Trump underscored the base’s geographic proximity to Chinese weapons facilities as a key reason for wanting it back. “It’s an hour away,” he emphasized, highlighting the potential strategic leverage Bagram could provide Washington in countering Beijing’s ambitions.
The Department of Defense declined to comment on Donald Trump’s claim, directing questions about the status of Bagram Airfield to the White House. As of now, neither the Biden administration nor current Pentagon leadership has confirmed whether negotiations with Afghanistan’s Taliban government are underway to reopen the base under U.S. control.
Donald Trump’s comments highlight both the enduring legacy of the Afghan withdrawal and the rising centrality of China in U.S. strategic calculations. Whether Washington can realistically reclaim Bagram and under what terms with the Taliban remains deeply uncertain.