Trump says US seeks to regain control of Afghanistan’s Bagram airbase
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US President Donald Trump said the Bagram airbase in Afghanistan is strategically located near China.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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LONDON – The US is seeking to regain control of Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, President Donald Trump said on Sept 18 during a press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, but an Afghan official dismissed the need for any US presence.
The historic Soviet-built airstrip was the main base for American forces in the mountainous South Asian nation following the attacks of Sept 11, 2001, until their 2021 withdrawal led to a takeover by the Islamist Taliban movement.
“We’re trying to get it back,” Mr Trump said of Bagram, citing what he called its strategic location near China. “We want that base back.”
But Kabul said it was not open to any such deal.
“Afghanistan and the United States need to engage with one another... without the United States maintaining any military presence in any part of Afghanistan,” Mr Zakir Jalal, an Afghan Foreign Ministry official, said in a post on social media platform X.
The two nations could establish economic and political relations on the basis of mutual respect and shared interests, he added.
China respects Afghanistan’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, a spokesperson for its Foreign Ministry said, urging all parties to play a constructive role in regional peace and stability.
“The future and destiny of Afghanistan should be held in the hands of the Afghan people,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a regular press conference on Sept 19 when asked about Mr Trump’s comments.
“I want to stress that stoking tensions and creating confrontation in the region wins no popular support.”
Engaging with Kabul to free citizens wrongly detained abroad
Mr Adam Boehler, the Trump administration’s special hostage envoy, and Mr Zalmay Khalilzad, a former US special envoy for Afghanistan, met Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.
Washington does not recognise the Taliban administration, which seized power in 2021 after 20 years of US military intervention in Afghanistan. REUTERS
