FILE – A gate is seen on the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, Friday, June 25, 2021. President Donald Trump has prompt he is working to reestablish a U.S. presence at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. That comes 4 years after America’s chaotic withdrawal from the nation left the bottom within the Taliban’s palms.
Rahmat Gul/AP/AP
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Rahmat Gul/AP/AP
President Donald Trump on Thursday prompt that he’s working to reestablish a U.S. presence at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, 4 years after America’s chaotic withdrawal from the nation left the bottom within the Taliban’s palms.
Trump floated the concept throughout a press convention with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer as he wrapped up a state go to to the U.Ok. and tied it to the necessity for the U.S. to counter its high rival, China.
“We’re making an attempt to get it again,” Trump mentioned of the bottom in an apart to a query about ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Whereas Trump described his name for the U.S. army to reestablish a place in Afghanistan as “breaking information,” the Republican president has beforehand raised the concept. The White Home didn’t instantly reply to questions on whether or not it or the Pentagon has performed any planning round returning to the sprawling air base, which was central to America’s longest battle.
Throughout his first presidency, Trump set the phrases for the U.S. withdrawal by negotiating a cope with the Taliban. The 20-year battle got here to an finish in disquieting style below President Joe Biden: The U.S.-backed Afghan authorities collapsed, a grisly bombing killed 13 U.S. troops and 170 others, and hundreds of determined Afghans descended on Kabul’s airport looking for a manner out earlier than the ultimate U.S. plane departed over the Hindu Kush.
The Afghanistan debacle was a significant setback simply eight months into Biden’s Democratic presidency that he struggled to recuperate from.
Biden’s Republican detractors, together with Trump, seized on it as a sign second in a failed presidency. These criticisms have persevered into the current day, together with as lately as final week, when Trump claimed the transfer emboldened Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine in February 2022.
“He would have by no means performed what he did, besides that he did not respect the management of america,” Trump mentioned, talking of Putin. “They simply went by means of the Afghanistan whole catastrophe for no purpose in any way. We had been going to depart Afghanistan, however we had been going to depart it with energy and dignity. We had been going to maintain Bagram Air Base — one of many largest air bases on the planet. We gave it to them for nothing.”
It’s unclear if the U.S. has any new direct or oblique conversations with the Taliban authorities about returning to the nation. However Trump hinted that the Taliban, who’ve struggled with an financial disaster, worldwide legitimacy, inner rifts and rival militant teams since their return to energy in 2021, may very well be recreation to permit the U.S. army to return.
“We’re making an attempt to get it again as a result of they want issues from us,” Trump mentioned of the Taliban.
The president repeated his view {that a} U.S. presence at Bagram is of worth due to its proximity to China, essentially the most vital financial and army competitor to america.
“However one of many causes we wish that base is, as you realize, it is an hour away from the place China makes its nuclear weapons,” Trump mentioned. “So loads of issues are taking place.”
Whereas the U.S. and the Taliban don’t have any formal diplomatic ties, the edges have had hostage conversations. An American man who was kidnapped greater than two years in the past whereas touring by means of Afghanistan as a vacationer was launched by the Taliban in March.
Final week, the Taliban additionally mentioned they reached an settlement with U.S. envoys on an trade of prisoners as a part of an effort to normalize relations between america and Afghanistan.
The Taliban gave no particulars of a detainee swap, and the White Home didn’t touch upon the assembly in Kabul or the outcomes described in a Taliban assertion. The Taliban launched pictures from their talks, displaying their overseas minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, with Trump’s particular envoy for hostage response, Adam Boehler.
Officers at U.S. Central Command within the Center East and the Pentagon, together with Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth’s workplace, referred questions on reestablishing a presence at Bagram to the White Home.
