“The United States handed Bagram over to the Taliban and got nothing in return. Now we’re trying to take it back,” Trump said on September 18 during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Chequers.
Bagram, once America’s largest base in Afghanistan and a key logistical hub in the 20-year war, is “about an hour away from where China develops nuclear weapons,” Trump claimed, without specifying a location. Analysts note that China has nuclear deployments in Tibet, roughly 800 kilometers from Bagram. While he did not confirm negotiations with the Taliban, Trump suggested he had “leverage” because the group “needs many things from us.”
Trump sharply criticized his predecessor Joe Biden for what he called the “disastrous” 2021 withdrawal, arguing the U.S. lost strategic ground by abandoning the base. “I planned to withdraw from Afghanistan too, but from a position of strength and dignity. I also intended to keep Bagram, one of the largest air bases in the world,” he said.
Reports indicate Trump and national security officials have been privately discussing the idea of reclaiming Bagram for months. Washington views the base as strategically valuable for monitoring China, countering ISIS, tapping Afghanistan’s mineral resources, and potentially reopening a U.S. diplomatic presence in the country.
Built by the Soviets in the 1950s, Bagram became the U.S. military’s central hub after 9/11, hosting more than 100,000 troops at its peak. With two runways, a 50-bed hospital, and a detention facility, it served as the launch point for most U.S. operations. Biden ordered a full withdrawal from the base in July 2021, just before the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul. A 2023 State Department report concluded that abandoning Bagram worsened the chaotic evacuation from Hamid Karzai International Airport, which became the sole exit point during the collapse.